Open skies but crowded departure lounges

When does project management become chaos management? Look no further than Terminal 5 for the answer. Its website announces it to be more than a new terminal, a new beginning.- oops. Witness the chaos and painfully farcical scenes yesterday as baggage handling came to a standstill through lack of people knowing what to do and a state of the art computer system that jammed. The terminal, designed to make flying in and out of London as easy and enjoyable as it should be (sic)…. simpler, faster, seamless check-in, the website makes for cringing reading. British newspapers are full of human stories surrounding lost luggage, missed weddings and elderly couples sleeping rough in the terminal. A challenging day indeed for communications people at BAA who own the site and BA who fly out of it. It’s a shame, not least because it overwhelms the real news coming out of Heathrow - the redistribution of transatlantic flight slots. Whilst travel is international, transatlantic departures, in particular have been strictly national, up until now. Airlines such as Airfrance through its Sky Team alliance will fly out of Terminal 4 this weekend for Los Angeles as part of the Open Skies policy. Fly the skies, but take hand luggage.