Passengers at Heathrow’s Terminal 5 on Sunday. (AP)

London, March 30: British Airways is likely to cancel flights throughout the week as it struggles to recover from the chaotic opening of Heathrow’s Terminal 5.

The airline was unable to give a day when it expects to run a full operation, committing itself only to running a “progressively larger flying programme” at a time when many school holidays are about to start.

Nearly 24,000 passengers have been affected by the disruption in four days at Terminal 5.

Today BA has cancelled 37 inbound and outbound flights of the 331 it was due to operate. This is on top of the 208 flights that the airline was forced to scrap in the first three days of operation of the £4.3 billion terminal.

The chaos would have been even worse had the airline not decided to continue operating the bulk of its long haul operation from Terminal 4.

Not only is the airline struggling to deal with its passengers, BA has now found itself engulfed in a fresh baggage crisis, with the airline admitting that 15,000 bags have been separated from their owners.

Others believe that the figure is even higher and the image of the airline has not been helped by photos of luggage piled high, in some cases in the open air.

Earlier this year BA was named and shamed as losing more bags than any of its competitors by the Association of European Airlines.

It had been hoped that the state of the art baggage handling system at Terminal 5 would had improved the airline’s wretched performance which saw it “mishandle” more than a million pieces of luggage last year.

Instead it has found itself having to call in volunteers to help reunite the bags with their owners.

A spokesperson said staff were working “round the clock” in an attempt to deal with the crisis.

Last year The Daily Telegraph disclosed that the airline had auctioned luggage which it was unable to return to passengers. This did little to help the airline’s image, even though the proceeds were sent to charity.

BA’s difficulties intensified when it emerged that the airline had misled passengers affected by the Terminal 5 delays by issuing a letter imposing a £100 limit on the amount it was prepared to pay towards hotel accommodation.

Under EU laws, the airline is obliged to pick up the full bill for an overnight stay when a flight is cancelled.