And you thought airport chaos couldn’t get worse!

A SEA of bags piled up yesterday at Britain’s busiest airport, as a baggage-system malfunction at Heathrow became the latest debacle in a summer of travel chaos.

The airport said the problem was resolved by Friday evening. However, hundreds of bags still carpeted the ground floor of Terminal 2 on Saturday, long after its owners had left – and travellers were warned they would not be reunited with it for two days.

This follows a disastrous start to a busy summer for the travel industry with thousands of flights axed and long delays in departure halls. The post-Covid surge in demand has coincided with staff shortages as the industry struggles to recruit quickly enough after making tens of thousands of workers redundant.

Gatwick announced on Friday that it will limit its daily flights to 825 in July and 850 in August, cancelling more than 4,000 flights in all. Around 800,000 people will have to find alternative arrangements.

A Heathrow spokeswoman said: ‘There was a technical issue with the Terminal 2 baggage system. Passengers are now able to check in as normal, but a number may have departed without their luggage. We are working closely with airlines to reunite them with their luggage as soon as possible.’

Travel consultant David Tarsh said the risk of machinery malfunctioning was higher because it had sat idle for much of the pandemic, and warned that other airports could experience similar problems. He added, however, that travellers could be confident of getting their bags back eventually.

Airport staff were seen yesterday wheeling trolleys of baggage to a multistorey car park where it was loaded onto lorries. One employee said there had been an urgent call to come in and clear the backlog.