BA cancels flights after chaos at new terminal

By Tim Castle

LONDON, March 29 (Reuters) - British Airways (BAY.L: Quote, Profile, Research) cancelled more than a 100 flights over the weekend following a chaotic opening of its new $8.6 billion terminal at London's Heathrow airport.

It said it had cut 66 short-haul and European flights on Saturday and would cancel 37 more on Sunday after Terminal 5's grand opening on Thursday descended into chaos when its new baggage handling system ground to halt.

The launch of the terminal building designed by architect Richard Rogers has proved a public relations disaster for the carrier that once styled itself the "world's favourite airline".

It has forced the postponement of an advertising campaign promoting the new terminal which was due to have been launched next week, a BA spokeswoman said.

The airline said it still planned to complete the second phase of its move to the new terminal from Heathrow's Terminal 4 at the end of April, although it said the date was under review.

By then BA plans to have transferred more than 90 percent of its Heathrow operations to the vast open-plan building.

BA Chief Executive Willie Walsh has apologised for the disruption and admitted the move to the terminal was "definitely not our finest hour".

BA shares fell more than 3 percent on Friday, hit by the Heathrow chaos and jitters ahead of Sunday's start of an "open skies" deal to create greater competition on trans-Atlantic routes.