BA to reunite customers with bags

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British Airways is starting to reunite thousands of travellers with their luggage as the airline issued a new apology for the fiasco at Terminal 5.

The airline is holding 19,000 bags in temporary storage and hopes to start returning 5,000 of them to their owners, BA chief executive Willie Walsh said. But because each bag has to be processed manaully, he warned the process could take a while.

The Government earlier put the number of bags at 28,000. The Department for Transport said BA and BAA used different accounting methods, which could explain the discrepancy with the smaller number quoted by Mr Walsh.

Mr Walsh admitted that T5's first day was a "disaster" and said he was "bitterly disappointed" it was not the success it should have been.

But he said he had received some letters from passengers who "loved" the new terminal.

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