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BA Chief Faces Grilling Over T5 Debacle

By Sky News SkyNews - Wednesday, May 7 03:56 pm

British Airways' boss Willie Walsh faces a tough grilling from MPs this afternoon over the Heathrow Terminal 5 fiasco.

The heads of Heathrow operator BAA have already been quizzed by the Commons Transport Select Committee.

BAA chief executive Colin Matthews told MPs the company had been too busy sorting out the problems caused by the debacle to launch an inquiry.

He said he was "not aware" in advance there were likely to be problems with the new £4.3bn terminal.

He also revealed 17 of T5's lifts were still not working - more than five weeks after the disastrous opening on March 27.

He apologised "unreservedly" for the fiasco and admitted BAA was to blame for "some of the problems".

Dozens of flights were cancelled and huge queues formed after the new 'state-of-the-art' baggage system broke down.

It was several days before BA was able to run a full service from T5, which had been officially opened by the Queen on March 14.

The shambles led to the airline postponing the transfer of nearly all its long-haul services to T5 from April 30 to June.

Two top BA execs - operations director Gareth Kirkwood and the customer services director David Noyes - have since lost their jobs.

MPs are likely to ask chief executive Mr Walsh about their departure, especially after he said he took full responsibility for the T5 debacle.

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