The Hereford Times

New date for T5 long-haul flights

5:14pm Friday 9th May 2008

British Airways will start transferring its Heathrow long-haul flights to the ill-starred new Terminal 5 (T5) on June 5.

BA and Heathrow operator BAA said eight long-haul flights, including services to New York, will move from Terminal 4 to T5 on that day.

BA chief executive Willie Walsh said the rest of the flights will be transferred in phases to the new £4.3 billion terminal, which had a shambolic opening on March 27 with flights cancelled and bags going astray.

The other seven destinations for which flights will be transferred on June 5 are Bangalore, Beijing, Cairo, Cape Town, Lagos, Phoenix and Abuja in Nigeria.

The June 5 transfers account for about a quarter of BA's Terminal 4 schedule.

Mr Walsh said: "As we announced on April 11, we will move our Terminal 4 long-haul programme into Terminal 5 in phases. We have taken this decision in the interests of customers, who remain our priority at all times.

"T5 is now working well, and we are pleased we can confirm our plan to move in some additional flights on June 5."

BAA chief executive Colin Matthews said: "I am pleased that we have reached this decision jointly. BAA and BA have worked together effectively to resolve the initial problems at T5, and to plan this next move.

"We continue to work together intensively to complete the migration of the remaining long haul services as soon as is practicable."