4 hours to get airport luggage

$2000 lure for extra staff

DESPERATE recruiters are resorting to cash incentives to boost aviation ground staff numbers at Melbourne Airport as international travellers wait up to four hours to collect their luggage.

Dnata and Menzies Aviation, which outsources baggage handlers to Qantas, Jetstar, Emirates, Thai Airways and China Airlines, are short of staff, with the latter offering a $2000 sign-on bonus to lure baggage handlers to Tullamarine.

But it hasn’t solved the problem for frustrated passengers, including Malaysian Airlines customer Ashutosh Gupta who said he waited for four hours for his family’s luggage after arriving in Melbourne from Kuala Lumpur on January 6.

He was forced to wait behind for the cases while wife Shazeea Ali and their two young children took their scheduled transport to their accommodation.

“If you can’t hire people to do the job, do not impose airport charges and taxes on travellers, and at least provide water and refreshments for women and young children,” Mr Gupta said.

Similar complaints uncovered online by News Corp Australia date back to the start of December.

Mike Morrow, who also landed in Melbourne, said staff took more than an hour to announce issues with his flight’s luggage.

Menzies Aviation’s vicepresident for ground handling, Chris Duffield, said the company’s recent recruitment drive was “significantly impeded” due to a challenging labour market.

Menzies Aviation serviced 60 international flights in late November. Last week, it had to deal with 175 flights.

“This increase has been at short notice and the aviation industry is doing all that it can to satisfy the needs of airlines and passengers, particularly during the summer peak,” he said.

“We are now seeing a significant change, and recent job advertisements have attracted more than 400 applications.

“We’re working through them as quickly as possible to identify the best people we can engage, train, obtain the necessary security clearances for, and inductions to have them on the tarmac servicing our customers’ aircraft as quickly as possible.”

A Dnata spokesman told News Corp it was committed to overcoming the baggage handler shortage.

“We are well placed to meet the rapidly increasing demand for our services and to support our customers through market recovery,” he said.

An airport spokesman said: “We are working with the airline ground-handling companies to rebuild their workforces.

“In the meantime, we acknowledge the frustration that these unacceptable delays have caused and apologise to passengers for the inconvenience.”