Heathrow at ‘breaking point’ as bags processed in different terminals and WEEK-long wait for luggage

Staff have warned that Heathrow Airport is ‘at breaking point’ with bags being processed in different terminals, holidaymakers being made to wait a week for missing luggage and families forced to sleep on the floor.

Thousands of British holidaymakers faced chaos again at UK airports today as Heathrow ordered airlines to cancel 10 per cent of their flights to cope with the baggage backlog – leaving 15,000 passengers stranded.

Staff members told MailOnline that an emergency system has been set up where passengers’ bags are driven to different terminals to be processed because of the mounting pressure.

A lift was set aside for workers to ferry trolley after trolley down to the ground floor where the bags were piled up next to a car park and outdoor smoking area.  

Baggage handlers in high visibility vests then loaded them onto another set of trollies where they were wheeled to vans waiting in an area where passengers are picked up by taxis.

One worker told how the vans were then driven to the baggage area in nearby Terminal 3 where they were put through security checks – before being sent back to Terminal 2 where the bags should have been checked in.

They told MailOnline: ‘We got absolutely hammered last week so they have had to introduce this system as an emergency.

‘The airport is at breaking point. There is too much luggage in the baggage area at Terminal 2 so they cannot be processed there. There is just no room.

‘The baggage for all short haul flights has to go to Terminal Three because it is not quite as bad there.’

Some frustrated travellers have been waiting for up to a week with no word on what has happened to their belongings. 

Patria Fopiano, from Los Angeles, has been waiting for her bags for a week. She came to the UK to see family and friends. She said: ‘I am waiting to get my tickets scanned to look for my bags.

‘I arrived on Tuesday June 14 from Florence via Munich to get here. Missed flights, came in late, got an email from Lufthansa saying my bags did not make my plane so I came back to Heathrow on Thursday last week.

‘They could not tell me whether my bags were scanned or where they were. Lufthansa is very unhelpful. I have no clothing except what I wore and I don’t like shopping, I’m here to visit and have a bit of a holiday.’

Passengers’ travel plans have been thrown into disarray at the 11th hour again following weeks of cancellations as the ongoing staffing crisis continues to cause mayhem at Britain’s travel hubs. Dozens of flights were affected today after airlines flying from Terminals 2 and 3 at Heathrow were asked to scale back schedules.

Virgin Atlantic has cancelled at least three long-haul flights to destinations including New York and Los Angeles, while British Airways has been forced to make a small number of cancellations. Three flights BA had planned to Toulouse in France have been grounded alongside two of four Marseille departures. 

As the chaos continued, two women said they were left without food or water for 11 hours while stranded in Palma de Mallorca Airport after their Jet2 flight back to Manchester was scrapped at the last-minute.

Meanwhile, EasyJet said it is ‘proactively consolidating a number of flights’ at airports affected by ‘operational issues’, such as London Gatwick and Amsterdam Schiphol. The airline expects its capacity between April and June to be 87 per cent of 2019 levels – rising to 90 per cent during the following three months.

EasyJet also said there will be a ‘cost impact’ from disruption and the amount of money it spends to operate each seat per mile excluding fuel will ‘exceed’ previous guidance. It added: ‘We believe that these capacity/cost impacts are a one-off this summer as we would expect all parties to build greater resilience in time for 2023 peak periods.’

The airline’s chief executive Johan Lundgren said he could not provide a figure for the number or proportion of flights that will be cancelled because ‘we need to work this through’ as ‘it would be misleading for me to give any numbers today because we simply don’t know.’  

He added: ‘The actions we’re taking, we do need to make sure that we can continue to operate a stable programme for the remainder of the summer. We believe it’s the right measure to take.’

An EasyJet trading update issued today stated that ‘there will be a cost impact from disruption, coupled with the enhanced resilience easyJet is putting in place this summer, from additional wet leased aircraft, crew costs and airport charges. We will therefore exceed the previously provided operating CASK [Cost for Available Seat Kilometres] ex fuel guidance. We believe that these capacity/cost impacts are a one-off this summer as we would expect all parties to build greater resilience in time for 2023 peak periods’. 

‘Wet leasing’ agreements are between air carriers where the aircraft is operated under the party from which it is leased. For example, British Airways have wet leased four FinnAir planes with crew to run BA flights.

Alice Speak, 34, said she was due to fly to Lisbon in Portugal to work on the production of a film, but instead she has been stuck in a queue trying to secure another ticket.

Her flight with the Portuguese airline Tap Air was cancelled.

She said: ‘I just got an email saying it had been cancelled by the airline. I was in the taxi on the way to the airport.

‘It said there is a staff shortage. I was told they would try to get me on another flight, but I don’t know.

‘I’m lucky, I’m from London and can just go home, but I’ve heard others are having to book hotels.’

One couple from Germany, who flew to London for the first time this weekend, also became stuck in queues after their flight home with the German airline Eurowings was cancelled.

Ely Coimbra, 27, said: ‘We were going back to Cologne today at 8pm. We received an email yesterday that our flight was cancelled.

‘But strangely, it was also saying it was on time on their website. We were able to check that, but then three hours later we received another email saying it had been cancelled. Now we are trying to get a new ticket.

‘We read in a German newspaper that there is a staff shortage.’

His partner Julia Martins, a 27-year-old student, added: ‘We are trying to get a flight to another nearby city, Düsseldorf. We never got the option to reschedule for tomorrow which is not great because we both work.

‘Don’t schedule three flights a day if they cannot do it. They cannot put that on the customers.’

Mr Coimbra, a compliance analyst, continued: ‘No-one seems to know what we are supposed to do, to ask here or what we will receive in the end. It’s very unorganised.’

Other passengers gathered around a phone at baggage reclaim in Terminal 2 trying to get hold of someone who could tell them where their luggage was. 

The reason for the ongoing chaos has been due to an aviation staffing crisis – recruiting for roles such as security staff, ground handlers and check-in staff which is seeing passengers advised to arrive much earlier than normal for their flights because they are facing long queues.

While many businesses in the aviation sector are struggling to rehire staff after many were let go during the pandemic due to a collapse in demand thanks to successive lockdowns, high levels of staff sickness for those who are still employed is also having an impact.

A Heathrow spokesman told MailOnline: ‘We apologise unreservedly for the disruption passengers have faced over the course of this weekend. 

‘The technical issues affecting baggage systems have led to us making the decision to request airlines operating in Terminals 2 and 3 to consolidate their schedules on Monday 20th June. This will enable us to minimise ongoing impact and we ask that all passengers check with their airlines for the latest information.’

Ryanair, which has been largely unaffected by recent cancellations, announced it has added 200 ‘rescue flights’ on its routes serving 19 UK airports until the end of September. 

This is aimed at passengers whose flights have been cancelled by easyJet, British Airways and Tui, the Dublin-based carrier said. 

Today holidaymakers are facing even more travel chaos – with exceptionally lengthy queues at Bristol, Manchester and Heathrow Airport at 4am this morning.  

One ‘stressed out’ passenger who was queuing at Manchester took to Twitter and said: ‘I’ve been queuing for an hour and I’m not even at security… stress levels are through the roof!’ 

Meanwhile, Brussels airport has cancelled all departing flights today following a strike by security staff. In a statement, the Belgian hub said: ‘Brussels airport has closed to all departures due to security strike. No departing flights on Monday 20 June.

‘Due to the national manifestation and strike of a large part of the security staff of G4S on Monday 20 June, no passenger flights will depart from Brussels airport. Passengers are urged not to come to the airport and to rebook their flight.

‘Only arriving (and cargo) flights will be carried out. Contact your airline to rebook your flight.’

The chaotic scenes came after one pilot was spotted loading luggage on to a plane, helping ground crew to load up to the plane with baggage ahead of an Edelweiss flight from Edinburgh airport.

The issue started on Friday with Heathrow chiefs blaming a ‘technical glitch’ in the luggage system. But it has sparked a huge baggage backlog which has been described a ‘carpet of luggage’.

Meanwhile, hundreds of passengers have reportedly been waiting up to three hours to retrieve their baggage today after flying into Heathrow.

A spokesperson for the west London airport said that there is ‘ongoing disruption’ from Friday’s glitch. But they said no additional baggage was being delayed.

They also said the airport was doing its best to ensure all passengers flying today can take their luggage with them – and reiterated that baggage is the responsibility of airlines and not the airport itself.

Simon Clarke, Chief Secretary to the Treasury, appeared on Sky News with Kay Burley this morning and said it’s ‘sensible’ that airports are ‘revising their schedules’ because it will prevent a repeat of the ‘terrible scenes’ passengers have been experiencing. 

He added: ‘What we’re seeing here is a result of the airline industry having massively contracted during the pandemic and now it’s facing this surge of pent-up demand as things stand back up.

‘It isn’t resourced and manned for that challenge and that’s why I think it is sensible that we’re starting to see some of the airports revising their schedules for the summer season ahead.

‘Frankly, we can’t have a repeat of the scenes we’ve had in some of our airports in recent weeks.

‘The transport secretary and ministers have been working very closely with the airline industry to try and get it into a more sensible place because they are offering flights they simply can’t honour and that is simply terrible for passengers.’

Mr Clarke also addressed the baggage crisis happening at Heathrow and said the ongoing issues are due to the Covid pandemic which led to the airline industry ‘slimming down’ their staff and operations.

He added: ‘This is not a result of Brexit, what I would say is it’s an industry that massively slimmed down and understandably so – at a time when flying was impossible for a year and a half.

‘It’s now massively expanded its operations and the pressure is enormous and it hasn’t managed to align the two.

‘We will do our part as government to try and make sure our side of things is right from issues like passports to border control.

‘We’re pouring resources into this and making sure the process is as robust as it can be. 

‘The airlines need to do their part and make sure the flights they’re offering can indeed be honoured.

Yesterday huge queues built up at Stansted airport and some passengers described the scenes of people sleeping in the airport overnight as looking ‘like a shootout’.

Meanwhile, scores of BA passengers, including a frail 81-year-old woman, were forced to spend the night on the floor of Rome airport when their flight was cancelled.

Holidaymakers endured a gruelling 14-hour delay on Saturday night after their 9.30pm flight was scrapped.

One traveller, Samantha Booth, fumed online: ‘@British_Airways you are a disgrace my 81 year old frail mother and my family have been left stranded over night in Rome airport. What are you doing about this.’

Other pensioners on the same cancelled flight to Heathrow told MailOnline they were treated ‘appallingly.’

Retired mechanic Tony Fairhead, 62 and his wife Sandra, 63 from Weybridge, Surrey, spent most of the night outside the check-in area before Tony borrowed an Emirates business class check-in mat to try and sleep on.

The couple, along with Tony’s sister Maureen, were being treated by big sister Jean, 74, to a week-long Greek island cruise with business class flights to and from Rome.

But the dream holiday was beset with cancelled flights, downgraded tickets and unwelcome surcharges which Jean is now addressing with BA and the cruise company.

The flightmare began as the four of them checked in, recalled Tony.

‘Our other sister back in the UK used to work for BA and she told us as early as 8pm that there was no flight showing from Rome to Heathrow that night, which obviously worried us.

‘Then we were told we had to leave the business lounge as it was closing, but it wasn’t until hours later that we were told the flight was cancelled.

‘We had to get our luggage back and were told we could spend £200 per hotel room for two people, but when we looked online there were absolutely no hotel rooms at that price and we’d have to spend about €50 for a taxi each way as well.

‘We were shunted back to the check-in area as everything else was closed, but there were hardly any seats there and we spent much of the night outside on the pavement. 

‘There was an old lady with dementia and a young baby who needed formula milk, but there wasn’t anywhere to make it.

‘It was the worst night I’ve ever spent. About 4am we moved inside and I rolled up the mat from the Emirates check in, but it wasn’t much better.

‘It was just horrendous.’

The flight was finally scheduled for 11.30am the next morning, but the unlucky planeload found their problems were still not over.

Added Tony: ‘We checked in again and were sent over to security with the same boarding passes from the night before, and of course were not allowed through.

‘There was a young Dutch lady who went back and forward across the terminal three times, being assured by the check-in staff that the problem had been sorted, only to be refused entry by security.

‘In the end, she shouted and swore at them, and the security people let us all through!’

Film worker Clare Wilson, 26, from West London, was booked on a TAP flight to Lisbon at 1.45pm but said she could end up arriving in Lisbon three days late for work because of the chaos.

Clare told how she was one of 10 people flying out to work on a film production in Portugal.

She said: ‘This is my first day working for a movie production company. 

‘I was supposed to get there this afternoon and have a quick catch up ten start work tomorrow. It’s chaos at the moment. 

‘I’m trying to check things online but it says the next available flight is not until Thursday.’ 

Describing the mayhem she said: ‘We were booked onto the 1.45pm which has been cancelled and somebody automatically moved me to the 8am. 

‘Because we are booked through the film company the message did not get through to me. I found out at 9am that it had been cancelled.

‘It might be three days before I can get out there. I live only 10 minutes away so I came down to try to find out what is happening. I’ve been queuing up for 45 minutes to try to sort it out. 

‘There are 10 of us travelling out there and I am supposed to be going out for a month. Some of the group were automatically moved to a later flight at 6.45pm. I’m trying to find out what’s happened to the others.’

Miguel Mora, 24, told how he is battling to get to Rome to meet up with his sister Daniella, 22, to go on a special cruise to celebrate her university graduation in three days time.

Liverpool fan Mr Mora told how he had flown to London with his mother Rosa from Miami. They found out an hour before leaving the US on Sunday night that their Heathrow flight to the Italian capital had been cancelled.

He said: ‘My sister is in Rome with a couple of friends. We have to get there to meet up for the cruise but we’ve got no idea how we are going to do it. We were going to spend a day in London. 

‘We wanted to see the sights but all you can see out of the window is a car park at Heathrow. My mum is trying to figure it all out. We might end up taking a train all the way there.’

 IT worker Dale Kingsbury, 54, was flying with his wife Carrie and son Paul, 20, to return to Newark in the US after a week’s holiday in the UK.

Dale said: ‘We showed up for our flight. We queued up and got right up to the front. When we arrived at the check in desk they said ‘Didn’t you get the email?’

‘They told us that our travel agent had been sent an email telling them that our flights had been rescheduled. The flight had been moved forward to 11am but we had no idea.

‘It was sent at 7am but because of the time difference that would have been in the early hours on Sunday. They probably haven’t even seen the email now.

‘We were flying via Lisbon. We were due on the 1.45pm flight and were rescheduled in the middle of the night for a flight nearly three hours earlier.

‘So we turned up and found we had missed the flight we’d been moved onto.

‘We had a week in London. We thought we had timed it perfectly and would get out just before all the chaos started. It’s frustrating’

Baggage carnage continued at Heathrow with one worker saying how passengers’ bags were being driven to different terminals to be processed because of a massive backlog.

A worker said: ‘It must be strange for passengers to check in their bags and then watch as they are taken back past them on trolleys rather than going airside.

‘The bags are sent down to the left to the car park. It’s not ideal and takes up a lot of manpower which seems crazy since a shortage of staff is one of the reasons we are in this situation.’

** Are you being caught up in airport chaos in Britain or elsewhere? Please email: tips@dailymail.com **