Travel chaos at Heathrow Terminal 5

It has been holiday hell today for travellers using the newly opened Terminal 5 at London Heathrow airport with cancelled flights and lost baggage.

British Airways has confirmed that 34 flights had been cancelled by 14:00 GMT, including flights to Germany, France and Belgium and other travellers experienced delays of up to three hours.

The airline blamed "teething problems" with the baggage handling system for the serious luggage delays.

BA undertook an ambitious move to the new state-of-the-art terminal building between 23:00 last night and 04:00 GMT this morning.

The complex operation involved transferring over a thousand vehicles, 27 short-haul aircraft and more than 2,500 ground staff, the airline said.

BA has claimed today's problems were "not unexpected" and apologised "for any inconvenience this has caused".

London Heathrow has the worst record of all European airports for punctuality, with over a third of European flights delayed by over 15 minutes.