As catastrophic personnel shortages continue to create turmoil for British citizens hoping to take a summer vacation, travellers have complained that suitcases have been piled up at Heathrow Airport for up to 10 days and are beginning to “stink.”
Stacks of abandoned luggage are visible in pictures posted online from the south-west London airport’s baggage area, which one traveler claimed “actually smells like crap.”
‘Baggage here since June 18, it is actually the 28th, bags are starting to stink… it’s literally a mess, sort it out,’ another user said.
This morning, travelers at other airports are also experiencing issues, including Manchester, where irate tourists were observed forming a massive, winding line merely to enter the structure at around 4am.
TUI has additionally drawn criticism for allegedly rerouting an aircraft from Larnaca, Cyprus, that was scheduled to land at Bristol to Gatwick and instructing customers to “find their own way home.”
One irate client complained: “You delayed us by 24 hours from Larnaca and then this, leaving diverted passengers at Gatwick without a bus to take them back to Bristol airport with your personnel sobbing.” Telling passengers to make their own way home.
As a result, unhappy travelers at Bristol Airport were forced to sleep on the ground yesterday to avoid the lines, while those at Heathrow Airport were
One traveler struggled to check in as lines stretched beginning at 4.30 am, so they carried an inflatable mattress with them to Bristol.
Customers had arrived hours before their flights in an effort to beat the already lengthy lines amid increased travel chaos.
Heathrow first saw disruption in March as managers battled to fill open positions due to a general lack of workers in the UK following the outbreak.
After unions rejected a 10% salary offer in favor of walkouts as soon as next month, possibly during the summer break, British Airway employees are also threatening to strike.
The airline’s offer, according to union bosses, was only a one-time “bonus,” and its employees demand a full-time boost.
Early July is the earliest that the strikes may occur, but the unions have not specified a timeline, probably in an effort to put pressure on BA executives to give in.
Several pieces of ‘unclaimed’ luggage appeared to be thrown around the carousels in pictures from within Heathrow, while other anxious travelers were sent on a fruitless search for their bags that were supposed to arrive with them days earlier.
After boarding a trip from Cannes to Heathrow last week, Kate Hardcastle MBE was left without her luggage and has been unable to locate it for six days.
A British Airways employee informed her that her bag had been sent to Dublin and had returned to Terminal 2, which has been the most badly affected by the luggage issue.
The business expert claimed that employees at Heathrow had told her that they were recommending their own families to postpone travel until at least November.
I am truly concerned for those who don’t travel as frequently as I do, Kate said in an interview with MailOnline. “I have been traveling for 20 years and you assume nothing will phase you,” she continued.
But this is disorderly. People who travel for the holidays after years of planning have no idea what awaits them. When I arrived last week from Cannes, I ended up spending two hours in Terminal 5 trying to obtain my bag.
It was chaotic; they were shoving extremely complicated forms in people’s faces. As far as I know, BA hasn’t been returning calls for months.
“I had to pack a bag for four weeks because I’ll be traveling for work during that time, and I had to get go of some high-value and sentimental items that were in it.”
Normally I would advise everyone to pack lightly and I would follow my own advice, but given my current circumstances, I was unable to do so. BA has stated that they are on a complete goose chase and have no idea where my bag is.
“Today I went to Terminal 2 in the hopes of getting it back. There were 13 others waiting before me who said they had been there for hours and no one from any airline was responding.
I found someone in operations, and together, we helped the folks who had flown today’s luggage get their bags back.
Staff members on the ground claim that due to the chaos, they are urging their own friends and family to postpone their travel plans until November.
The CEOs’ complete quiet and lack of comment simply astounded me. The truth is that people in the UK have been waiting for two years like Rapunzel in a tower, and they don’t deserve to be delayed or denied access to their luggage.
“I don’t know why no one at the top of the companies is stepping up. I try not to be too critical, but it’s not good enough if you aren’t even willing to fight on the front lines.
“People are rightfully on the verge of tears, and I am too.” I have no chance of getting it back. Even those who reside further away and have misplaced their belongings cannot return with ease. My belongings must be transported in carrier bags.
We’re doing everything we can to reunite our customer with their bag, a British Airways spokesman told MailOnline. We apologize for the inconvenience and delay.
Any travelers with baggage concerns are advised to get in touch with their specific airline, according to Heathrow.
It follows a chaotic weekend in which passengers arriving at Heathrow’s Terminals 2 and 3 were met with a sea of luggage spilling out across the terminals as they arrived from Amsterdam, Canada, and India. S
taff reportedly apologized to the worried passengers, saying, “Sorry, the whole industry is in a mess.”
Check-in delays, flight delays, and baggage problems have plagued airports for months in the UK, which experts attribute to a general lack of workers in the sector.
The announcement comes as thousands of British Airways employees, including engineers and cabin personnel, have vowed to cause even more mayhem in airports and airlines over the summer vacation.
Over 16,000 employees are being asked by unions if they want to join the more than 700 BA employees who have already agreed to walk out in protest over pay at Heathrow Airport throughout the summer.
Armed GMB and Unite unions accuse ‘pig-headed’ aviation executives of starting the dispute by ordering mass layoffs during the pandemic, when airlines were already having financial difficulties.
The RMT union, led by Mick Lynch, unleashed a string of mass walkouts that paralyzed the UK’s rail system, prompting the threat of the strike.
According to Downing Street, strikes by BA employees would worsen the “misery” that travelers already experience at airports.
A spokesperson for No. 10 continued, “We would strongly encourage both British Airways and the unions to come together to negotiate a settlement. This is certainly an issue for British Airways and the unions.
“We don’t want to see any more passenger inconvenience, and a strike would only make things worse for travelers at airports.”
The “Department for Transport will obviously work closely to look at what contingency measures BA could put in place and we expect BA to put in place contingency measures to ensure that there is as little disruption as possible and that where there is disruption, that passengers can be refunded,” according to the statement.
In the past, politicians defended reinstituting the triple pensions lock while supporting wage restraint elsewhere, claiming it would be “reckless” to raise public sector pay in accordance with inflation.
Michael O’Leary, CEO of Ryanair, claimed last week that one of the problems with hiring in the UK is due to “British people not wanting to be luggage handlers,” noting that his Irish business has not experienced the same problems.
The low-cost carrier has been “totally unscathed” by this summer’s airport congestion, which has caused other British airlines to cancel thousands of flights in part owing to a lack of workers.
On the other hand, Mr. O’Leary claimed that Ryanair was ready for the resumption of pre-Covid levels of travel since it could see the “recovery coming” and had already started its personnel back at work.
Furthermore, he asserted that unlike his rivals, his Irish business could benefit from the European labor market and avoid having to hire British workers who didn’t want to “pick fruit or work in hospitality, security, or baggage handling at airports.”
As employees went on strike this weekend in Belgium, France, Italy, Portugal, and Spain, Ryanair is also dealing with its own labor disputes in Europe.
At UK airports, passengers have endured check-in delays, aircraft cancellations, and baggage problems for months.