British Airways' boss Willie Walsh has told MPs the chaotic opening of Terminal 5 was "a combination of factors", including a lack of staff training.
Hundreds of flights were grounded and thousands of passengers flew without their luggage when Heathrow's new terminal opened in March.
Mr Walsh told the House of Commons Transport Select Committee he knew of some of the problems ahead of time but went ahead with the opening after scaling down the number of flights using the new terminal.
Initially, BA had planned to move 92 per cent of its operations to Terminal 5 on March 30 but decided instead to split the move in to four stages.
Mr Walsh told MPs the airline had not given staff enough training.
"Our staff weren't as familiar as they should have been and that impacted on their performance," Mr Walsh said.
"If we were to do it again, we would do things differently."
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