Passengers at Heathrow have been warned that they may not see their luggage for days as the airport’s massive luggage pile-up continues to increase owing to a ‘problem with the baggage system.’
Hundreds of bags are packed together in what witnesses have dubbed a “luggage carpet” at one of Heathrow’s terminals, only hours after the airport’s chief executive stated that “minimal” delays were being experienced.
According to Daily Mail, Customers were apparently advised that it may take up to two days before they were reunited with their goods, and the disruption was blamed on a ‘technical fault’ with the baggage system, which has since been fixed, according to the company.
Heathrow passengers have been told that they may not see their bags for days as the airport’s large luggage pile-up continues to grow due to a ‘baggage system failure.’
Hundreds of bags are piled high in what witnesses have nicknamed a “luggage carpet” at one of Heathrow’s terminals, only hours after the airport’s chief executive claimed “minimal” delays.
Customers were reportedly told that reuniting with their belongings might take up to two days, and the outage was attributed to a ‘technical failure’ with the baggage system, which has already been resolved, according to the business.
It is the latest scene of chaos at British airports, which have been plagued by staff shortages and painfully-long queues for several weeks.
And there are fears the worst could still be yet to come, when children break up from school for summer, which will see millions of families looking to fly overseas for holidays.
A Heathrow spokesperson told MailOnline today: ‘Yesterday there was a technical issue with the Terminal 2 baggage system which has now been resolved.
‘Passengers are now able to check-in as normal, but a number of passengers who departed from Terminal 2 yesterday may have travelled without their luggage.
‘We are working closely with airlines to reunite passengers with their luggage as soon as possible.
‘We’re sorry there’s been disruption to passenger journeys.’
It comes as passengers passing through Britain’s airports have experienced last-minute flight cancellations, baggage stuck hundreds of miles abroad, and snaking lines as the new normal.
Some visitors have even been forced to sleep on the floor of terminals due to long delays, according to shocking images from around the country.
As people rushed back to work and school after half-term, they crossed borders rather than waiting for later flights.
Many people claimed they had to pay hundreds of pounds for new flights or other kinds of transportation, such as Eurostar trains.
Teachers who needed to return to the classroom and A-level students who were at risk of missing exams and maybe losing their university spots were among them.
The aviation industry is suffering from staff shortages after letting thousands of people go during the coronavirus pandemic.
And Gatwick Express cancelled all trains for three days next week and Eurostar axed dozens of services, as last-minute crunch talks continued with Network Rail.
Business minister Paul Scully told Sky News there are 1.3 million vacancies across the country in various sectors but there are also ‘people who have recalibrated what they want to do when they were on furlough’.
He also said he wanted to make it possible that ‘people who can work longer – that want to work longer – can do’.
It comes as John Holland-Kaye, chief executive of Heathrow, warned it will take 12 to 18 months before the industry can get its capacity back to pre-pandemic levels.
Mr Holland-Kaye pointed out that skilled jobs have been lost and it takes time to recruit and train people, while staffing issues around the world also have an impact at UK airports.
He told Sky News that Heathrow’s passengers had faced only minor delays, adding: ‘For two years most politicians and the public were calling for borders to be closed and that has had a devastating effect.’
He added: ‘It’s very easy to slam the brakes on the industry, lead to enormous job losses, but much harder to scale it up again.’
Mr Holland-Kaye believes enough workers will be in place to deal with the summer getaway as Heathrow’s ‘largest team of people are the security officers and we will have as many people in security this summer as before the pandemic’.
Ground handling companies, which deal with services such as baggage checks and cleaning the planes, have suffered big job losses.
Gatwick yesterday said it is planning to limit its number of daily flights to 825 in July and 850 in August compared to a reported 900 daily flights during the same time period in previous years.
This means 4,000 flights will be axed until September – meaning 800,000 people will have to find alternative travel arrangements – but bosses hope it will help passengers ‘experience a more reliable and better standard of service’.
And easyJet, who axed 40 flights per day in June said: ‘Given the high frequencies of our services to and from Gatwick, we expect to be able to reaccommodate the majority of customers should their flight be affected by the cap’.
A spokesman for TUI, who were so short staffed that police had to tell customers waiting at the gate in Manchester that their half term holiday was cancelled, declared: TUI Airways flights have been operating well from Gatwick and we therefore plan on operating all flights as planned this summer’.