"We note the findings of the Transport Select Committee, and apologise again that the opening of T5 in March failed to live up to passengers' and our expectations. We remain of the view that the close working relationship between BA and BAA in the first few days of the terminal's operation resolved problems quickly and helped to raise standards to the level passengers see today. We have also introduced a number of changes which reflect the lessons learned at T5 and the Committee acknowledges these positive steps and the changes that have brought them about within BAA.
"Terminal 5 has been open for seven months and has been used by more than 11.5 million people. The level of passenger satisfaction at T5 is high, and indeed consistently higher than European counterparts. We regularly exceed performance targets for cleanliness, wayfinding and security queues have been less than five minutes nearly 98% of the time.
"We acknowledge that the Committee did not get all the answers it wanted at the first hearing. We focused on fixing the problems at T5 and not investigating until those problems were resolved once and for all. Had we diverted our resources to investigating rather than solving the problems, we could not have fixed them as quickly as we did."
