Gulf travellers caught up in Heathrow disarray

AIRPORT CHAOS: Gulf passengers connecting to and from domestic flights have been caught up in the chaos at T5. (Getty Images)

British Airways passengers from across the Gulf have found themselves caught up in the chaos at Heathrow airport's now infamous Terminal 5.

Although flights from the Middle East to the UK have yet to start using the new terminal, referred to as T5, passengers connecting to and from domestic flights have suffered along with thousands of others following T5's disastrous launch.

The much-heralded 4.3 billion-British pound ($8.41 billion) terminal opened for business last Thursday, but a series of problems, including the failure of the baggage system, has meant more than 100 flights have been cancelled and almost 30,000 pieces of luggage have yet to be reunited with their owners.

People travelling to Bahrain after taking internal flights to T5 in order to catch the long-haul flight from Terminal 4 are just some of those affected, Bahrain’s Gulf Daily News reported on Tuesday.

BA passenger Jackie Doody flew from Edinburgh to Bahrain via Heathrow on Friday and was still waiting for her bags to arrive, the newspaper said.

Doody said four or five passengers on her flight had lost their baggage.

“They read out a list of passenger names on the flight to Bahrain and told us to report to a desk when we arrived. They have been very helpful but we still don't know any thing,” she told the newspaper.

A BA spokesperson admitted that number of people affected flying to various destinations totalled in the thousands, the paper said.

British Airways on Monday said its long-haul flights from the Middle East to the UK had not been impacted by the chaos at T5.

The airline said only short-haul flights have moved to the new terminal so far. Middle East flights are expected to transfer to T5 at the end of April, it said.

Do you have a horror story about or pictures of travelling through Heathrow's infamous Terminal 5? ArabianBusiness.com would like know. Contact Amy Glass at This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it .

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