As airport bosses get a handle on queue management just in time for the jubilee weekend, frustrated air passengers returning from holidays are reporting hours-long waits for baggage.
Emily Ellwood landed on an easyJet flight from Larnaca to Gatwick on Tuesday night, where she says customers could not disembark the flight for 40 minutes due a problem at the gate. Staff told passengers they couldn’t find anyone “to open the plane door”.
When the holidaymakers made it into the terminal, she says, it was then “two hours 37 minutes from landing in the plane to getting our baggage back”.
“It seemed to be an easyJet problem with the baggage,” she observes, “as a TUI flight landed and got their bags immediately. There were tannoy announcements saying sorry for the baggage delay for easyJet.”
Early on Tuesday, Tui passengers arriving to Bristol Airport reported waiting more than two hours for their baggage to appear in the terminal.
Customer Danielle Witt wrote: “Landed after an 8 hour night flight, sat in baggage claim for an HOUR to finally have an announcement that our luggage won’t be out for ANOTHER hour…not acceptable!
“I have a 14 month old who is tired and we can’t even get his car seat so we can leave!”
Early this morning, easyJet passenger Glyn Handley wrote: “We were waiting for 2 hours at the baggage claim along with several other easyjet flights. We flew in from Larnaca.”
“@easyJet you are a shambles not only delayed flights but delayed baggage claim. The state of @Gatwick_Airport this morning at baggage reclaim is farcical,” he added.
Shortly before 6am this morning, passenger Louis Parkes reported waiting for three hours for luggage from an easyJet flight to appear at Gatwick.
“@Gatwick_Airport Any idea when the luggage from @easyJet flight from Dalaman as been waiting for 3hrs now and still no word from @dhlexpressuk as to when we might see it?” he wrote on social media.
Meanwhile, yesterday Tui customer Andy tweeted: “3 hours waiting for bags but we were the lucky ones as hundreds being told at the gate via email that their holiday is cancelled. Greed over the customers. Hopefully no one will use them following this shamble of a shower of sh**e.”
A spokesperson for Tui said: “We’d like to apologise to these customers who have been impacted by the recent disruption to our operations. We continue to work closely with ground and baggage handlers at our airports to minimise the risk of delays.
“We thank customers for their patience and understanding at this time.”
A spokesperson for easyJet said: “Due to ATC restrictions at London Gatwick airport earlier this week, some flights have unfortunately been delayed.
“Due to the number of flights arriving later than expected there were some additional ground handling delays on arrival, including in the delivery of bags.
“Although this is out of our control we would like to sincerely apologize to our customers for the inconvenience caused.”
