Baggage issues cause chaos at Heathrow Airport

THOUSANDS of passengers have been facing chaos at Heathrow Airport once again with long queues at check in and people forced to travel on without their baggage.

“Operational constraints” meant bags were not delivered and many flights were stuck on the tarmac waiting to leave on Saturday March 19.

British Airways (BA) told passengers waiting to collect their luggage on Saturday evening that no more bags would be delivered for the rest of the day.

Hundreds of passengers waited for hours before being told to go home without their luggage.

At least 25 flights were affected, while many other flights were delayed reportedly due to a shortage of ground crew.

Lynn Hill tweeted: “No baggage came out at all last night, 2,000 people in arrivals and then an announcement saying “go home”. No one’s answering phones and there’s no comms. Truly bad. @ HeathrowAirport”

Ju wrote: “How about you speak to someone from British Airways & tell them to resolve the 1,000s of bags from 25 flights that were not unloaded from airplanes last night!

“No way of getting through to them & no update on the bags. Shocking service!

Remove @British_Airways from Heathrow!!!”

Later, they added: “We have been trying to contact them since 1am online and from 8am on the phones – no answer – an automated message says they are busy and cuts off the call! The bags have necessary medication & sentimental value items from dad’s funeral! The stress this has created is unbelievable.”

Julie Welham tweeted: “Sort out Heathrow terminal 5 @British_Airways – what the hell is going on? Queues like I have never seen – no way to work out which q is which. 45 minutes so far waiting to check in and not even close to the front of the queue – and loads of check-in desks not even open.”

The airline said in a statement: “We’ve apologised to customers whose bags have been delayed due to operational constraints. We know how frustrating this is and our teams are working incredibly hard to return luggage as soon as possible.”

The weekend’s issues were not the first time in recent months that BA passengers have faced chaos. Last month, all short-haul flights were cancelled due to a major IT outage and many others were delayed.

The airline emailed customers on March 4 to apologise.