Following mounting problems during a disastrous opening day, passengers due to travel to or from Terminal 5 are being advised to contact British Airways before arriving at the airport.

BA chief executive Willie Walsh warned there would also be cancellations on Saturday but said he is determined to make "this great building work".

Terminal 5, or T5, cost £4.5m and is designed to help cut the time taken for passengers to move through check-in to departure. At capacity, it is designed to accommodate 35 million people a year.

Yesterday, its grand opening collapsed into chaos when some some flights left without luggage on board, arriving passengers were forced to wait more than two hours for baggage, escalators were not working and officials were finally forced to cancel flights and halt baggage check-in.

Customers complained that staff were unfamiliar with the terminal's new facilities and systems and there was not enough information for those experiencing problems.

The transfer of operations from Terminal 4 which was due to take place on April 30 is now "under review", Mr Walsh said.

"Yesterday was definitely not British Airways' finest hour. We disappointed many people and I apologise sincerely. I take responsibility for what happened. The buck stops with me.

"Our performance was not good enough. We did not deliver for our customers and we should have.

"I would expect some disruption tomorrow, but I think it will get better every day as we become accustomed to the building and the quirks of the systems."

Mr Walsh said yesterday's situation was genuinely "a combination of problems". He said staff arriving found difficulties getting in and there were delays getting airside, putting them "under pressure from the very beginning".

There was then a system failure when staff tried to log in to the new system, which was tracked back to "human error", he added.

Further problems this morning included more difficulties for staff getting through security and the "track transit system transferring passengers between T5a and T5b wasn't working", he said.

He said: "Everybody knew this was going to be a huge challenge and nobody thought this was going to be easy.

"Our staff were working under difficult circumstances and they feel they have let our customers down and feel let down themselves.

"I am not pointing the finger at BAA. Both British Airways and BAA made mistakes, but I am taking responsibility for the mistakes we made. If people want someone to point the finger at then they can point it at me.
"I didn't get any pleasure out of what happened yesterday."

Not even the terminal's Gordon Ramsay restaurant has escaped criticism.

Called Gordon Ramsay's Plane Food, the restaurant has "underwhelming food" and is "way too expensive for budget travellers", according to a review on www.areyoureadytoorder.co.uk.

The review says: "Here, Ramsay has promised a civilising airport experience in a restaurant that will be a cross, he says, between 'The Ivy and the Boxwood Cafe, with a touch of the Wolseley' thrown in.

"A nice theory, but the harsh reality of airport catering economics and building restrictions means that the only real connection to be made with his statement is the word 'cafe'."