British Airways (BA) and BAA have deferred the planned move of the airline”s long-haul services from Terminal 4 to Terminal 5 by up to two months.
The news will come as a blow, but perhaps not a total shock, to members of the SkyTeam Alliance, who are progressively planning to move into T4 in the ”Under One Roof” concept.
”We are making this decision in the interests of customers,” said BA CEO Willie Walsh. ”Though Terminal 5 is now working well, we need to have confidence that good service can be maintained when the terminal is handling larger number of customers.”
And BAA also conceded that the postponement would have a knock-on effect on SkyTeam, with chief executive Colin Matthews noting: ”We recognise the impact [this] has on other airlines, but we believe it is a wise precaution to ensure that passengers can have the maximum confidence once the move does take place.”
Both the UK flag carrier and airport operator are clearly aware of just how disastrous the initial move into T5 was and are now moving with extreme caution before loading BA”s long-haul services into the system.
”We will be working with BA in the intervening period, as well as with other airlines to mitigate as much as possible, the knock-on effects,” said Matthews.
”BAA fully recognises that the inauguration of T5 has not been as smooth as we and BA would have wished. In the last few days passengers have seen significant improvement and our goal is to complete that process.”
BA had planned to move its long-haul services from T4 to T5 by 30 April but is now confining itself to noting that the move will be ”deferred until June.”
Further details are expected this afternoon (11 April) from BA.