Heathrow Terminal 5, London: But the future is bright

It has been quite a dramatic opening for Terminal 5 at Heathrow airport for British Airways, with a week full of problems, problems which have seen over a hundred flights cancelled in the first week of terminal 5 opening. In the first few days, problems with the baggage handling and then in the last 2 days which snow falling (although it is not clear why snow would only affect British Airways) its been a tough opening.

So should we be optimistic or pessimistic if we have flights booked to fly in or out of Heathrow Terminal 5? Past airport openings suggestion optimistic to me.

The fact is that airports and terminals on this scale tend often to have a difficult start in the first few days or weeks and then things get sorted out and work out well. Denver International Airport, is a perfect example of an airport which now runs with great efficiency but started off similarly to Heathrow Terminal 5. Denver saw long queues and big baggage delays at the start and even before that, the airport opening was delayed by a year.

Many of us remember also the problems which Kuala Lumpur International Airport expeiences a few years ago, with similar problems to what Heathrow T5 is experiencing now. Kuala Lumpur International Airport is now one arguably one of the best airports in the world.

My belief is that Heathrow will soon sort out these problems and within a few weeks will get gradually up to 100% working efficiency.