Heathrow's Terminal 5 still losing 900 bags per day

Terminal 5 came in for renewed criticism yesterday after it emerged that passengers transferring between planes at Heathrow's troubled new £4.3bn building are losing more than 900 bags a day.

Trade union officials said T5's baggage handling system still needed improvement and travellers on connecting flights have a one in 12 chance of being separated from their luggage. Iggy Vaid, senior shop steward at the Unite union and a former T5 baggage handler, told MPs that 932 bags miss their onward journey from the terminal on a daily basis.

"If we change the process it will get better. We have to. There is no alternative," he said.

The baggage figures for passengers flying into Heathrow in order to catch a further flight, are still worse than for the rest of the airport, three months after the building's disastrous opening. According to Unite, 80 out of 1,000 bags on connecting flights from T5 do not get to their plane, against an average of 65-70 bags for the rest of the airport.

Heathrow's Terminal 5 is still in chaos with nearly 1,000 bags going missing every day, it was claimed yesterday.

This challenges British Airways' assurances that the system is now running smoothly.