LONDON: Heathrow is one of the airports hit by a computer glitch that has left thousands of passengers without their bags. The problem with the software that tracks bags and links them to the passenger meant that people all over Europe were left trying to find out what had happened to their bags.

On one flight alone, BA316 from Heathrow Terminal 5, almost 50 passengers on the flight were told that their bags were still in the UK.

Gatwick, Stanstead and Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport were also affected by the glitch. Heathrow staff said it was a "Europe-wide" problem.

British Airways said it was doing all it could to reunite passengers with their bags, but said it was not the only airline affected. They said it had nothing to do with Terminal 5, when problems in the summer led to tens of thousands of bags going missing.

The new £4.3 billion terminal got off to a bumpy start in March when flights were cancelled, planes left without baggage and incoming passengers were forced to wait up to two hours for their luggage to come through.

Last week Mark Price, the managing director of Waitrose persuaded airports operator BAA to run a week-long trial in Nov at Terminal 5, offering 5,000 cups a day to travellers in the arrivals hall to try to improve Britain's image to incoming tourists.
Source : DNA