Fly the flag, lose the bag...

…that’s the unofficial, passenger-generated motto of British Airways, whose new Heathrow Terminal 5 was proposed as a panacea then panned as a pitiful failure. More evidence from the Times of London:

HEATHROW

British Airways loses more bags and operates more delayed planes than any other big airline in Europe, a confidential report seen by The Times has found.

On the day that BA launched its first advertising campaign to rescue the reputation of Terminal 5 at Heathrow using the tag line “Terminal 5 is working”, it emerged that BA customers were 80 per cent more likely to lose their luggage than average in the first half of 2008.

Britain’s third largest airline, bmi, also had one of the worst records for lost luggage this year, beaten only by BA in a table of 29 European airlines. Nine passengers traveling on a typical BA jumbo jet flight between January and June found that their bags were missing when they arrived at their destination…

Simon Evans, chief executive of the Air Transport Users’ Council, the official passenger watchdog, said: “All we can do is express disappointment that Terminal 5 has not been the answer to all of BA’s prayers. We are seeing some improvements but not that significant in terms of where BA is featuring in European airline league tables.”  - full story

Heathrow is quite a trip - the crossroads of the world in my opinion - and a real cultural experience if you survive it. To think the old LHR terminals are actually preferable to the new one is incredible.

(Thanks to Mike in Bristol, UK for the tip)

Update on August 6, 2008 by Brad

Read how tough LHR can be, even for a one-bag traveler.(and note how nicely his Aeronaut fits in the BAA luggage gauge).