London: British Airways cancelled 54 scheduled flights in and out of London Heathrow's expensive new terminal today, signalling a third day of travel misery for travellers.

"British Airways plans to operate 293 out of 347 scheduled flights to and from Heathrow Terminal 5 tomorrow," the airline said in a statement. "All long-haul flights from Terminal 5 will operated as planned."

Sixty-eight flights, 20 per cent of the total to and from the USD 8.7 billion terminal were cut yesterday, the same as on its opening day Thursday.

The problems have been blamed on the supposedly state-of-the-art baggage handling system, which had to be shut down because of computer glitches, as well as problems getting staff on site.

BA chief executive Willie Walsh, who admitted earlier amid growing anger that Thursday "was definitely not British Airways finest hour", tried to put a more positive spin on events.

"We've had a better start today," he said in a statement. "While there are still some problems to overcome we are planning to operate a larger proportion of our flying programme tomorrow (today)."

The terminal is the first new addition for 20 years to Heathrow, one of the world s busiest airports, west of London.

Opened by Queen Elizabeth II this month amid great fanfare, it descended into chaos Thursday.

Long queues built up and some passengers flying into the terminal had to wait so long to be reunited with their luggage that they gave up, and asked for their bags to be sent on.

Source : PTI