Fail to prepare and prepare to fail

Chaos, bedlam, an almighty mess – just some of the colourful adjectives spouted by furious passengers caught up in the catastrophic grand opening of Heathrow’s Terminal 5. Even by UK standards this was pretty bad. In fact, I would go as far to say that if there was a chart for the biggest cock-ups in UK history, T5 would be a highest new entry. It would probably slot in just above London’s wobbly bridge* but below the much-maligned Millennium Dome. 

But what makes the fiasco so hard to comprehend is the fact that the powers that be assured us that this gleaming new terminal has been tested and tested, and then tested again by human guinea pigs pretending to be passengers. Yet despite these assurances, a systems failure caused operations to grind to halt, hundreds of flights cancelled and thousands of bags misplaced – a polite way of saying lost. I’m not going to discuss the ins and outs of the sequence of events that were the catalysts for the meltdown because it has been documented elsewhere and quite frankly, my editor only allows me 500 words on this page [that’s 41 you’ve just wasted – Ed].  Needless to say you would think any problems have been ironed out before the grand unveiling and the first passengers arrived. After all, this is one of the world’s busiest airport, servicing a city that will to host the Olympic Games in four years time.

Okay, so may be I’m going little overboard with my somewhat with my criticism. Any new project, especially on this scale, is going to have some teething problems; for instance, the cabling involved would apparently stretch from London to Istanbul and back. With new systems, an unfamiliar building and staff still finding their feet you can see how the unveiling soon went downhill. However, it’s how you deal with these challenges that prevents things from snowballing into utter chaos. Indeed, we often hear how the damage to reputation can be as costly, if not more, than the actual incident itself. British Airways reported that the fiasco hit the company in the pocket to the tune of €20 million by early April. The reputational injury is a little harder to calculate.

But while Heathrow’s image may have hit an all time low, I wager that six months from now this will be all but forgotten and passengers will be flying in and out of the T5 like nothing ever happened. Two BA executives have gone and now is the time for bosses to put things right and start winning back the trust of passengers who vowed never to use Heathrow again. Let’s just hope the UK learns from this shambles or we could be adding a few more cock-ups to that list.

T5 in numbers

• The new terminal cost €5.3 billion to build
• Around €93 million of these costs were for technology
• Another €217 million was spent on IT systems
• The project involved 180 IT suppliers
• The number of IT systems installed reached 163

Source: ComputerworldUK

* The pedestrian-only London Millennium Bridge was nicknamed the Wobbly Bridge when it had to be closed after just two days because an unexpected and pronounced swaying motion developed.