Heavy snow adds to Heathrow's woes

LONDON, England (AP) -- Passengers faced more travel misery at Heathrow's new terminal Sunday after heavy snow and continued baggage handling problems led to further cancellations and delays.

British Airways, the sole occupiers of the Terminal 5, said 126 flights have been canceled Sunday.

The snow is the latest blow to the airline's hopes of finally running a full schedule from the terminal it opened with great fanfare last week.

Since operations began at the terminal, hundreds of flights have been canceled, a backlog of thousands of bags remains and passengers have been forced to spend the night in the gleaming new building.

BA said air traffic control had reduced the number of aircraft that could take off and land per hour on Sunday. Earlier, both the airports runways were temporarily shut down briefly as workers removed ice from the tarmac.

Meanwhile, airport operator BAA PLC, said it had fixed a computer problem with the terminal's state-of-the-art baggage handling system that began on Saturday.

The new baggage handling problems were a bitter blow for British Airways. The airline had endured one of its most difficult weeks, but said on Friday that the terminal was "running very well" and there was no falloff in bookings as a result of the problems, which analysts expected to cost the airline about $32 million.

On Saturday, the airline said 12 short-haul flights had been canceled, and departure boards at the airport showed delays of up to three hours.

The airport operator, BAA, said its staff had identified the problem and were considering how to solve it without creating further disruptions.

"This is entirely BAA's responsibility," the operator said in a statement. "We apologize to British Airways and all passengers who have been affected and can assure them that our specialist staff are working hard to resolve the problem and keep disruption to BA's operation to a minimum."

The computer problems have meant airline staff have had to deal with bags manually, taking more time than would normally be needed, a British Airways spokeswoman said on condition of anonymity in line with company policy.

"We are urging BAA to resolve these issues as soon as possible," she said.

Passengers flying with British Airways have been advised to check flight information regularly before traveling to the airport. E-mail to a friend

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