UK Airport In Chaos As Passengers Dump Luggage After 'Management Failure'
A UK airport is in chaos at the moment, with passengers abandoning their bags amid horrendous queues. See the shambolic scenes for yourself here:
Manchester Airport has been plagued with massive queues at security checks, and councillor Pat Karney said a 'failure of management' is to blame.
The BBC reports that one woman missed a flight to see her mum for the first time since lockdown, despite queuing for three hours, while another traveller said they saw 'customers and staff in tears' at the airport.
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The delays are not just affecting security checks either, and passengers have been made to wait for hours in baggage reclaim too.
Alison Unwin said she had to wait more than two hours for her bags on Saturday (2 April) and said she saw scores of unattended bags from the day before strewn across Terminal 3.
Speaking from baggage reclaim as she waited for her luggage on Saturday night, the 60-year-old said: "There are bags everywhere from days before.
"It really is inacceptable. They've got tickets on them dated yesterday. If I wanted to I could just walk off with one of those bags.
"There are abandoned pushchairs, car seats, golf clubs and suitcases strewn around from yesterday. Nobody has taken charge of them. They are just left there.
"There's a girl here with cystic fibrosis and the enzymes that she needs are in her suitcase. There are people here with a little baby and they're waiting for their car seat. Obviously they can't drive home without it.
"My husband has gone home in a taxi and he's going to come back in the car to pick us up. That's how ridiculous it is."
Manchester Airport has blamed staff shortages for the delays, but Karney said management had 'totally underestimated the recovery time of the airport'.
"Two million people went through the airport in February [and] in the previous year, it was 70,000, so you had to plan ahead," he said.
"They should have seen all this. They should have known the recovery was going to be very quick."
A Manchester Airport spokesperson told LADbible: "Manchester Airport apologises to passengers whose experiences this weekend have fallen below the standard we aim to provide. We want to assure customers and colleagues that their safety and security will always be our first priority.
"Our whole industry is facing staff shortages and recruitment challenges at present, after the most damaging two years in its history.
"The removal of all travel restrictions after two years, coupled with the start of the summer travel season, has seen a rapid increase in passenger numbers, which is putting an enormous strain on our operation."
They continued: "We are doing all we can to recruit the staff we need to meet this demand, but this is taking time due to the lengthy vetting and training processes involved. That is why we have been advising travellers that there may be, at times, longer queues than normal.
"Whenever this is the case, we do all we can to redeploy resources and prioritise passengers within queues as best we can.
"We are also aware that partners working on our site, such as baggage handling agents, are facing similar challenges. We will continue to support them in any way we can to deliver the best possible experience for customers during this challenging time."
Jake Massey