Mr Loryman, who had caught the early-morning flight from Newcastle, had hoped to be relaxing in Las Palmas in time for dinner. Instead, after waiting nearly two and a half hours waiting for his luggage to be conveyed the 100 yards from his plane to the carousel where he and his fellow passengers were waiting, he had missed his connection.

Now he was hurrying to change terminals before flying to Barcelona, where he would have to board yet another flight to Tenerife arriving – barring any further delays – at his destination shortly before midnight.

"We have an old-fashioned piece of Geordie slang for places like this. We call them heaps of shite," he said angrily.

British Airways (BA) has cancelled 54 scheduled flights in and out of London Heathrow's expensive new terminal overnight, signalling a third day of travel misery for travellers.

"British Airways plans to operate 293 out of 347 scheduled flights to and from Heathrow Terminal 5 tomorrow," the airline said in a statement.

"All long-haul flights from Terminal 5 will operated as planned."

Sixty-eight flights, 20 per cent of the total to and from the $9.38 billion terminal were cut on overnight, the same as on its opening day.

The problems are being blamed on the supposedly state-of-the-art baggage handling system, which had to be shut down because of computer glitches, as well as problems getting staff on site.

At least 15,000 bags are stranded at Heathrow airport after a third day of cancellations at the new Terminal 5.

The news came after one-fifth of British Airways flights from the troubled terminal were scrapped on Saturday - 67 out of the 330 scheduled.

Many passengers said they departed on flights after being told their luggage would not be travelling. A further 37 flights have been cancelled for Sunday.

The airline has also scrapped its £100 limit for delayed passengers' hotels.

[...]

BA has confirmed an estimated 15,000 bags are stranded but one source has told the BBC that the number may be closer to 20,000.

The bags are stacked up across all terminals at the airport, after problems with BA flights coming in and out of the new terminal.