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Belfast Live
Belfast Live
National
Damien Edgar

Belfast family stuck on camping holiday with no luggage

A Belfast woman says her family are stuck on a camping trip without any of their luggage after it was lost while they flew to Barcelona.

Kathy Tennant Carter and her family flew from Dublin Airport to Barcelona on Thursday June 30, with the aim of making their way to their camping site in Beziers in France.

However, when they arrived, the luggage for Kathy, her husband and three teenage children was nowhere to be found.

Read more: Spain holidays: Ryanair crew announce 12 new strike dates

Kathy was told by Ryanair staff that the bags would be there by the morning and given a number to call for the airport.

The next morning, she tried to get in touch to see what was happening, as they were only staying in Barcelona for the one night before moving on.

"I started phoning the number they'd given us the next day as I wanted to make sure something was happening," she said.

"I must have phoned them 26 times in one day and it just always rang through with no-one answering the phones and then you would get cut off."

Dublin Airport has seen long queues in recent months (Collins)

She had friends travelling through Dublin Airport who enquired about the luggage, who were told it was now at Stansted Airport and would be sent on soon.

That hasn't happened and Kathy has said the issue has dominated what was meant to be a fun family holiday.

"I have been emailing and phoning Ryanair every day and Dublin and Stansted Airport every day," she said.

"We've driven to Beziers airport every single day, so it's ruining the holiday because I'm spending every morning on the phone and emailing.

"Ryanair are completely blanking us, they've acknowledged our email but they've said they'll be back in contact and we haven't heard from them.

"It's everything in there - our chargers, makeup, toiletries, clothes, towels, everything.

"We're camping so we had a lot of stuff in there that we need.

"Also, because we've been told so many times 'it'll be here tomorrow' we don't want to go out and spend a lot on clothes."

The family are not due back in Northern Ireland until July 24 and are stuck in limbo with their luggage seemingly lost in the ether.

The asthma sprays that Kathy's husband use are also in their bags, wherever they have ended up.

Kathy said she wanted to warn people to tag and photograph their luggage to avoid the same problems they have faced.

"We never even thought about this, now that the bag's gone missing, it may never be identified," she said.

"There's a bag out there with no identification on it, how they're going to even know it's mine, it's maybe being flown all over the UK.

"So I would warn people even just to take a photo of their bags and what they've got in their bags so that when they open a suitcase, they'll know whose it is."

Ryanair said it hoped that the luggage would be returned to Kathy by this evening.

“Overall, Ryanair passengers are not experiencing baggage issues at Dublin Airport, and the current baggage issues at Dublin Airport are as a result of DAA (Dublin Airport Authority) staff shortages.

"This isolated incident has been resolved and this customer will be reunited with their luggage this evening.”

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