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Chaos as New Terminal Opens 新航站楼的混乱

London Heathrow is the biggest airport in the UK, and it also handles more international passenger traffic than any other airport in the world. For this reason, expansion was planned and on 27th March a fifth terminal opened to help to cope with the many passengers that pass through the airport.

The new terminal has taken a long time to plan and build. The idea was first proposed back in the 1980s.

The opening of it has been talked about widely in the media in the UK and expectations were high for the ￡4.3 billion (60.2 billion RMB) project.

However, in spite of long preparations at Terminal 5 ahead of the grand opening, things soon descended into chaos.

There were problems from the outset as staff had difficulties finding car parking spaces and getting through security to get into the building. This consequently caused a delay when passengers started to arrive and adequate numbers of staff were not in place.

Long passenger queues formed and the slow start meant that everyone had to play catch-up from the beginning.

Staff were having problems using the new systems and a baggage handler told the BBC, it was all "a shambles the moment the doors opened".

The terminal has been designed to handle 12,000 bags an hour but due to a reported "lack of training and essential support that was promised", a backlog of luggage soon materialised.

By lunchtime on that first day, 20 flights had been cancelled to try and alleviate the problems. Flights continued to be cancelled in the days following the opening and up to 28,000 bags have now had to be placed in temporary storage.

BA, the only airline operating at Terminal 5 says it is working to clear the backlog, but the negative publicity caused by this fiasco has not helped the airport or the airline's reputation at all.

GLOSSARY 词汇表

handles 处理

international passenger traffic 国际航空客运量

expansion 扩建/扩展

to cope 应对

proposed 拟议/建议的

expectations 期待

billion （数）十亿

grand opening 隆重的揭幕仪式

from the outset 伊始

adequate 足够的

queues formed 出现长队

to play catch-up 紧紧追赶

a baggage handler 行李管理员

a shambles 大混乱

lack of 缺少

a backlog 积压（行李）

materialised 形成

alleviate 减轻/减缓

temporary storage 临时行李储存处

fiasco 大失败/乱七八糟