British Airways demands £10m from Heathrow over baggage fiasco

British Airways (BA) is demanding £10m from Heathrow after 20,000 bags failed to make it onto flights over the weekend.Sean Doyle, the airline’s chief executive, is understood to have written to Thomas Woldbye, his counterpart at Heathrow, to demand compensation after the airport’s luggage systems broke down.He has also sought assurances from Mr Woldbye that there will be no repeat of the incidents amid several reported issues at Heathrow’s Terminal 5, which is dedicated to BA flights.A BA insider said Mr Doyle’s letter had made clear the airline had “had about enough”, with the latest failure, the fifth this year. It followed other serious issues during the February half-term holiday and at Easter, which affected 7,000 and 4,000 bags respectively.The source said: “We can’t keep absorbing the consequences of repeated Heathrow system failures. Our customers rightly expect and pay for a reliable journey through Heathrow; they are the ones who suffer when these appalling failures happen.”The breakdown that hit on Friday forced BA to dispatch dozens of flights to its destination with no checked luggage on board, with passengers unaware of the issue until landing.The airline is still working through the backlog of stranded bags, with the last items not expected to be reunited with customers until Thursday.The system failures add to tension between Heathrow and its largest airline. The two sides are already at odds over the airport’s £49bn expansion plans.‘Need for more resilient infrastructure’BA and other airlines are concerned that the cost of Heathrow’s third runway plans will balloon, with carriers and passengers forced to pick up the bill for cost overruns. They are pushing for a rival, cheaper expansion proposal to be considered.The BA insider said the baggage problems were another example of the airline failing to provide adequate service despite charging the highest fees in Europe.They said: “This is the most recent of a handful of incidents already this year that highlight a clear need for more resilient infrastructure and stronger contingency planning.“As decisions are made about the airport’s future, it’s essential that reliability and resilience come first.”Close to 35,000 bags are believed to have missed their flights at Terminal 5 so far this year, racking up costs for locating stranded items and forwarding them to their owner.Expenses include booking bags on to later flights – sometimes with other airlines – and delivering them to a home, hotel or even a cruise ship.Airlines are also responsible for compensating customers for reasonable expenses such as buying new outfits, which could run into thousands of pounds.The source added that BA fears the issues will cause it reputational damage. Other minor baggage failures that did not make headlines nevertheless attracted criticism on social media, the person said.Heathrow apologised for the inconvenience caused by Friday’s incident, but said its baggage system operates with 99pc reliability.A spokesman said: “The system’s reliability is fully restored, and we have been working closely with BA to reunite bags with their owners.“We will continue working with airlines and their ground handlers to minimise future incidents and drive opportunities to make baggage performance even more reliable.”BA said on Monday that the Government should give serious consideration to rival proposals for a shorter third runway at Heathrow, a plan drawn up by Surinder Arora, a hotel tycoon. Mr Arora said the truncated landing strip would shave billions off the cost of expanding Heathrow and could still be extended in future.The airport said it hoped the Civil Aviation Authority, which is examining funding options for the new runway, would see the value of its improvement plans and back its investment proposals.