BRITISH Airways' long-haul flights will start being transferred to Heathrow airport's ill-fated new fifth terminal on 5 June, the airline has announced.
Eight routes, including services to Cape Town and New York, will move from terminal four. A total of 50 such routes were due to switch on 30 April.
The other routes being transferred next month are to Bangalore, Beijing, Cairo, Lagos, Phoenix and
Abuja in Nigeria, which account for about a quarter of BA's operations in Terminal 4 .
Willie Walsh, its chief executive, said the rest of the flights would be transferred in phases to the new £4.3 billion terminal, which had a shambolic opening on 27 March. No dates for these have been announced.
Baggage system problems at T5 led to the cancellation of some 500 flights and 23,000 bags went astray, 150 of which had still not been returned to their owners this week.
Since the T4-T5 delay was announced on 11 April, passengers from Scotland, who now arrive at Terminal 5, are continuing to have to transfer by bus to terminal four to connect with long-haul flights. The two-hour transfer time for passengers from Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen will be halved when long-haul flights are moved to T5.
Mr Walsh said of the decision to phase the move: "We have taken this decision in the interests of customers, who remain our priority at all times.
"T5 is now working well, and we are pleased we can confirm our plan to move in some additional flights on 5 June."
Colin Matthews, chief executive of Heathrow operator BAA, said: "I am pleased that we have reached this decision jointly. BAA and BA have worked together effectively to resolve the initial problems at T5, and to plan this next move.
"We continue to work together intensively to complete the migration of the remaining long-haul services as soon as is practicable."
The full article contains 330 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
