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Terminal Five chaos hits Hughes & Hughes

31.03.08 Graeme Neill

Hughes & Hughes' two new branches at Heathrow Terminal Five have experienced a shaky start to trading after the problematic opening of the airport's fifth terminal. The bookseller said that sales were affected by the smaller number of passengers passing through the terminal, after dozens of flights had to be cancelled owing to a combination of security, staffing and IT problems.

The Irish bookseller has two new branches airside at Terminal Five. Tom Costello, general manager of Hughes & Hughes Terminal Five, said: "Obviously customer flow was affected, and there were a smaller number of passengers passing through than we would have wanted, but overall operationally it went really well."

He added: "At the beginning it was tough. People were stressed, the airport had issues over signage, and it's not the start that we, or BAA, would have wanted. But given the passenger flow and the issues around that, we definitely hit our targets."

Costello expects a big boost in sales from the end of April, when the majority of Terminal Four passengers will transfer across to Terminal Five. "We will get that kick from the additional long haul passengers, who tend to spend more," he said. 

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