(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-04-02 07:58

LONDON -- Britain's aviation minister called the continuing flight cancellations and baggage problems at Heathrow Airport's new Terminal 5 a blow to national pride.

Jim Fitzpatrick told lawmakers on Monday it could be a week before a backlog of suitcases and bags are returned to their owners following glitches with the London terminal's hi-tech baggage-handling system.

A passenger waits for a flight in the departures lounge of Terminal 5 at Heathrow Airport in west London, on March 28. [Agencies]

British Airways canceled 54 more short-haul flights at the terminal on Monday as a result of the problem.

Staff have struggled with parking, security and access to the terminal, which is the size of 50 soccer pitches and was heralded by BA as the best facility in the world.

Fitzpatrick acknowledged that the much-heralded opening of the terminal had failed to end so-called "Heathrow hassle" for travelers passing through the airport, Europe's busiest.

"We had no reason to believe that the plans for T 5 would not work," Fitzpatrick told lawmakers. "It is a matter of considerable disappointment, it has dented national pride."

Theresa Villiers, transport spokeswoman for the main opposition Conservatives, said customers had been badly let down. "Yet again the state of Heathrow is a national embarrassment," she said.

Almost 300 flights have been scrapped and at least 28,000 bags unexpectedly separated from their owners since the new terminal opened last Thursday.

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said a foreign minister traveling to Slovenia for EU talks last weekend complained after he was caught in the chaos. He did not name the official concerned.

"One foreign minister I met at the informal meeting in Slovenia over the weekend has fallen victim to the Terminal 5 saga," Miliband wrote on his Internet blog. "He arrived merely to transit, but his bags are nowhere to be seen and it was whispered that it might take weeks."

BA, the only airline to fly from Terminal 5, said the terminal was working at 87 percent capacity on Monday and service was returning to normal. But it warned there would be more cancellations.

"It's really not ideal as an image of Britain," said Scott Basolo, waiting at the terminal to catch a flight to Los Angeles. "The folks I spoke to were just horrified that it had been such a disaster."

BA Chief Executive Willie Walsh said the airline would "not rest until our service has been restored to the high standard customers rightly expect".

"A backlog of undelivered bags has built up," he said. "This backlog is not affecting the day-to-day operation of the baggage system, and we are making every effort to reunite delayed bags with their owners."

Walsh said he took responsibility for the problems but said he would not resign. He apologized to customers, saying the first day had been a "disaster" for BA but that performance at the new terminal was steadily improving.