An entire flight load of passengers left without any luggage following a three hour wait at Manchester Airport.
Fed-up passengers on the Tenerife flight were told a staff shortage stopped them from taking bags off the plane.
They had landed at the North West airport at 5.50pm on Tuesday and waited for hours for their luggage to be taken off the plane, Manchester Evening News reported.
At 8.45pm - with no luggage appearing - they were given a form to fill out so that their luggage could be sent on.
Passenger Andy Sokill, 70, branded their ordeal a "shambles" and said passengers were kept in the dark over the delays.
The Marple, Greater Manchester man said: "People were getting really frustrated, there were families there with one-year-olds, elderly people, people in wheelchairs.
"Eventually they told us it'd be another half hour and at 8.45pm they said our luggage was still on the plane and there's no one to unload them so they told us we might as well go home and gave us a form to fill in.
"What's really annoyed me is that no one will accept responsibility, nobody wants to know, you're almost expected to just accept the issues.
"There was no one there to apologise, they couldn't even tell us if we would get the bags even if you waited any longer.
"Nobody is prepared to hold their hands up and apologise or be there on the night to give information.
"Even if things go wrong just have someone there to tell you the information, this is supposed to be a superior airport but it's a shambles.
"The whole thing really is a disaster. You wait that long and still not get your bags. I don't understand why they couldn't tell people."
Andy left the airport and headed home to wait for his baggage, but was left frustrated by the lack of clarity from staff about when the issue might be resolved.
The plane was due to be used for a flight to Rhodes at 6.45pm, with cabin crew changing over when Andy's flight landed.
They were told the flight was unable to leave until their baggage had been unloaded.
.A spokesperson for TUI said: "We’re sorry to hear these customers experienced baggage delays at Manchester Airport.
"We are urgently investigating this with our baggage handler and the airport to find out exactly what happened and we’ll be in touch with customers as soon as possible to resolve the issue."
A spokesperson for Swissport, which manages the baggage handling for TUI, said: "We would like apologise to passengers who experienced baggage delays at Manchester Airport.
"Although the post-pandemic return in travel demand is positive news, peak periods – which can be stretching even in normal times – are exacerbating resource challenges across the recovering aviation industry.
"We are working hard to address our resource challenges, with over 2,500 additional employees since the start of the year and will continue to work with our partners to find solutions for this industry-wide issue.”
