British Airways canceled 50 flights at London Heathrow airport's new Terminal 5 and hired FedEx to carry about 20,000 pieces of luggage to the airport to reunite the bags with passengers after nearly a week of disruption at Europe's busiest airport.

Glitches in the $8.5 billion terminal's computerized baggage system have caused more than 300 flight cancellations since the system's March 27 startup. British Airways says it has been able to return about a third of the bags to their owners.

The airline had been counting on Terminal 5, which took two decades to plan and build, to cut down on congestion and ease operations at Heathrow.

But the high-tech computerized luggage system refused to allow handlers to log-on, meaning bags that have been unloaded at Heathrow have to be re-screened manually. Some of the bags had to be taken to London Gatwick airport for the security checks.

Michael Fabey
Traffic World