Ever since he became chief executive of British Airways in 2005, Willie Walsh has delighted in giving a countdown to the opening of Terminal 5. So why has it gone so badly?

A smooth entry to the airline’s showpiece new home at Heathrow was at the top of BA’s agenda for 2008. Nothing was better calculated to end the era of Heathrow hassle and to allow the airline and airport to restore their battered reputations.

“We are ready, so bring it on!” Mr Walsh wrote to staff.

The events of the past 48 hours have shown such gung-ho confidence was severely misplaced. For the first time Mr Walsh’s credibility as BA chief executive is itself on the line.

The detailed planning for the preparation of the move to T5 has all happened on Mr Walsh’s watch and nothing has been given higher priority. “I take responsibility for what happened,” he said. “The buck stops with me.”

As the airline snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, the personnel repercussions for BA management must inevitably follow. But for himself Mr Walsh insisted on Friday: “I came into BA to make T5 work, I am not going to step down because it didn’t work on day one.”

Online anger as passengers cool their heels

‘I know of many people who simply will not use London as a gateway to Europe and will take other more circuitous routes to their destinations. Together BA and BAA have created a monster that has impact in the entire economy.’ Derek

‘What a disaster. I was always told that with the arrival of T5 everything would be better. RUBBISH! I was delayed for 1½ hours on a flight that only takes 90 minutes. I still don’t have my bag.’ Thomas

After getting our seats we ended up waiting on the plane for FOUR hours(!!!). We then flew to Tokyo only to be told our baggage had been left behind.’ HW

‘How is it that the UK gets such disasters but not the other developed countries? Management failure is obvious.’ Peter Bray

‘Everything about day 1 at T5 sucked. Mind you, I rediscovered the joys of first class on the train.’ Craig

Mr Walsh has some precedents on his side. Big airport projects are notorious for nightmare starts, and some have gone on to join the ranks of the world’s favourite airports, most notably Chek Lap Kok in Hong Kong.

However, he is going to have to move quickly to end the chaos of the past two days.

More than 150 flights have been cancelled, stranding thousands of passengers, forcing many to rebook or abandon their travel. Passengers have faced hours of delays waiting for baggage off aircraft. The airline is struggling to clear a mountain of more than 6,000 misplaced bags.

Mr Walsh said a number of issues led to Thursday’s calamity. “There were problems in the car parks, airport areas, computer glitches and the baggage system. In isolation, they would not have had the impact they did, but in combination they led to a level of disruption we never took control of during the day.”

The problems meant the airline was unable to get groundhandling staff to the correct locations for loading and unloading bags from the aircraft. There were delays at the staff car parks and at security in getting BA staff airside, and there were logging-in problems for baggage handlers reporting for duty.

All these factors caused growing operational problems throughout Thursday in “processing customers’ baggage”, leading eventually to baggage check-in being halted.

BAA, the airport operator, claimed privately that the problems were not due to the functioning of the baggage system. The equipment, with a capacity for handling up to 12,000 bags an hour, had worked until it became clogged with bags that were not being dealt with by BA’s handlers.

BAA officials blamed a lack of training and claimed BA staff had not been familiarised sufficiently with the new systems. During the next crucial few weeks of the phased transfer of operations to T5, BA is at its most exposed. It is operating across three terminals – most of its long-haul services from T4 are due to move to T5 on April 30. Inevitably Mr Walsh will have to answer criticisms that the airline has spread its resources too thinly. It has added staff at Heathrow, but overall the Walsh era has been marked by cost-cutting.

During some previous meltdowns at Heathrow, Mr Walsh has been quick to attack BAA but on Friday he was much more circumspect. “I am not pointing the finger at BAA,” he said.

Flight cancellations are expected to continue into the weekend, but at a lower level, as BA seeks to rebuild its schedule and the robustness of the operation.

Mr Walsh staked his own reputation on overcoming the mistakes in the hope the airline was facing only teething problems. “British Airways will be in this terminal for 40 years. It is not going to be judged on the basis of the first few days.” Maybe. But the clock is ticking.