British Airways (BA) said here Thursday that the turmoil following the opening of Terminal 5 at Heathrow Airport in London has so far cost around 16 million pounds (some 32 million U.S. dollars).
"The impact was borne by the short haul schedule, where there were 300 cancelled flights, equating to 0.2 percentage points of capacity," Sky news quoted a statement from the airline.
The airline announced earlier Thursday that there will be a full schedule of flights at Terminal 5 Saturday.
The airline has been forced to cancel scores of flights due to problems with the baggage handling system. Huge queues built up as the hi-tech computerized baggage handling system ground to a halt. On Thursday, British Airways cancelled 34 flights, an improvement on the previous two days when more than 50 were axed.
Baggage handlers are still reportedly sorting through 14,000 items of luggage lost in the chaos.
Bags owned by European passengers have been sent to Milan where they are being sorted by a contractor.
BA's chief executive Willie Walsh has explicitly taken full responsibility for the turmoil but ruled out the possibility of resigning.
He said that the 4.3-billion-pound (some 8.6 billion dollars) terminal would soon live up to expectations.
Source: Xinhua
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