As Heathrow airport struggles to cope with twice its capacity of passengers,
union bosses have warned that industrial action by overworked ground staff
“cannot be ruled out”.
With the holiday rush just a fortnight away, a senior source at British
Airports Authority (BAA) predicted “another summer of utter chaos” as staff
shortages, heightened security measures and equipment breakdowns push
Britain’s biggest airport to “meltdown”.
British Airways, the largest airline at Heathrow, with 570 aircraft movements
every day, admitted that June had been “a difficult month” and that it was
bracing itself for “a very busy summer”.
Stringent security checks are still causing significant delays for outbound
passengers, but the biggest hold-ups this summer are likely to be in the
arrivals halls. Passengers coming in to Terminal 4 are facing waits of three
hours or more for bags to arrive, despite BA drafting in engineering and
cargo staff to bolster undermanned baggage-handling teams.
Last week, as airport staff distributed free mineral water in the overheated
baggage-reclaim hall, passengers described the delays as a disgrace. “I’ve
been waiting 3½ hours for my suitcase,” said passenger Jason Lemou. “I’ll
never fly through this hellhole again.”
BA ground services manager Mike Henwood blamed the delays on lack of staff and
equipment. “We had a lot of scheduling problems in June, but the real
problem is a shortage of staff and equipment to move luggage around,” he
said. “With baggage elevators at £200,000 each, the airport’s not exactly
rushing out to buy more.”
The T&G union, which represents BA’s 2,000 baggage-handlers, said staff
were stretched to breaking point. “We’ve been telling BA for months that our
staff are working under unsustainable pressure,” it said. “And when bad
weather or security delays come along, the system cracks up. It’s management
incompetence, and you have to wonder if BA’s chairman, Willie Walsh, is
being given the true picture by his staff.”
Walsh said: “Heathrow operations have been very difficult in recent weeks. The
airport is running at nearly double its intended capacity, and this has been
made worse by extreme weather and security issues. I am delighted with the
support from staff, who are working round the clock to help customers and
clear the backlog of bags. The T&G’s comments do not help staff or
customers in any way.”
Having just returned from the US travelling both ways on B.A. all I can say is what a fiasco T5 was! Day 1 of the new terminal you think they would have had some clue as to what they were doing - WRONG.. NO! We were delayed for 2 1/2 hours on the plan as there were issues with the baggage being loaded. Eventually the pilot anounced that we were departing and all baggage had been loaded.
After an 11 1/2 hour flight (plus the 2 1/2 hrs sitting on the plan) we arrived. However, just before landing the pilot made an anouncement. Unfortunately there was a 'substantial' amount of luggage that had not arrived and he had only just been informed. One of the stewards mentioned that we may want to keep the little bag they give you with the toothbrush, socks etc. just vefore this anouncement was made - perhaps he knew something the pilot never, hmmm. We were in the minority of lucky ones thankfully who had received our bags - never again BA thanks.
Kelle, Henlow, Beds.
We watched helpless as the Bristish Airways check in steward sent our bag down the bag shute with no baggage tag. When alerted to the error the check in steward (after being rude) walked over and had a chat to another BA staff member and came back telling us it would be fine. After checking at the airport lounge desk we discovered she had not even bothered to phone up and alert them that the bag had not been tagged. After arriving at our departure gate we were then assured the bag would be on our flight to Paris. The bag was not. After taking down a completely incorrect description and contact details for the bag (which we have attempted to fix twice online) we contacted the lost baggage centre. Currently the green bag is described even more incorrectly as purple, mauve lilac or lilac, the description also says we will be in Paris until the end of August. Oh - and did I forget that I have rung customer relations twice but the automated voice message disconnected me.
Naddy, BRISTOL,
My baggage has been missing since transferring from American Airlines to BA at Heathrow on June 29. BA has been unresponsive and totally unwilling to accept any responsibility, preferring to point the finger at everyone except themselves. I might suggest that Willie Walsh soil his nice Jermyn St shirt and get out there and find my bag. I support a class action suit against BA for its negligence and deceptive business practices. Passengers should have been warned of this luggage chaos. And the BA web site should have acknowledged it and posted updates. We should all join in a class action suit.
Ned Soltz, Arlington, TX, USA
I flew home to Copenhagen with BA from San Fransisco and landed on june the 29th (2007) - its now been 3 weeks (!!!) and still no word of the whereabouts of our lugage.
I have experienced the same bad service (or simply lack of it) - no on answers the phone, it just goes of the hook, or an automatic voice says the answering machine is full and again it goes of the hook.
So we took some hours of from work to go to the danish BA handling office in Copenhagen Airport. Having to do this is unacceptable. At the office, they could still not locate our baggage (we lost 2 out of 3), but said it might be in Milan.
They explained, that apparently BA has so hyge problems in Heathrow, that its cheaper for them to ship the bagage to Milan than to try to send it with the next plain to the owner.
Then in Milan they put it in trucks and send it out to the owners. Or supposedly they do.
Has anybody heard anything that can confirm this Milan story?
And what are my passenger rights?
Eva , Copenhagen, Denmark
My family made the decision to fly to Europe/UK this summer on British Airways- over the US competition- as we were tired of dirty planes, no room and nasty food. Well, sorry folks but the combination of BA and Heathrow make the US competitors look efficent and competant!
My husband was stranded at Terminal 4 on July 3- BA cancelled their flights while other airlines continued to fly- then the BA staff simply went home leaving the stranded passengers to fend for themselves! It was a disaster!
On July 8th my daughter and I flew out of Heathrow- well it was still a disaster! Our paid-for, confirmed BA tickets had been cancelled and we had to stand in line- well several lines, while this group released the tickets to that group, etc. We were told it was a computer error! Where we sit in Charlotte, NC almost a week on with NO luggage- and NO idea where our luggage might be!!!! The phone numbers given to us ring off the hook- there is NO customer service agent available to help!
Rebecca , Charlotte, NC
My family recently went through Heathrow (using British Airways) to come to France for my wedding, and five of their suitcases were lost. It has been over 10 days, and four of these suitcases are still missing! I think that the airline companies should take responsibility for this also; they are aware that the infrastructure of Heathrow is not able to handle the influx of passengers, and so should therefore take it into their own hands and make an investment in hiring more staff and maybe even (gasp!) investing in a new baggage lift or two... that seems to be a smart business plan to me... rather than taking it out on their customers!
Carly Corsun, Paris, France
"The T&G’s comments do not help staff or customers in any way.â€
Yes it does! It's a relief to hear someone addressing the real issues - staff shortage, poor working conditions and a failure of management - rather than blaming it on the weather and "heightened security", and being delighted that employees are working overtime. "Heightened security" is the NORM now, haven't you noticed?
I have been waiting for my bags for two week now; the tracer thing is totally useless, and there is absolutely no information on the BA website about the situation.
Take back the workers you laid off months ago and start caring about your customers!
Marc, Paris, France
It is not just Terminal 4 where there are problems with Britsh Airways. We recently had to wait 1 1/2 hours for our baggage on a domestic flight into Terminal 1. We have been told that BA are trying out Terminal 5 procedures! They are patently not working.
We have had 3 flights in the last 3 weeks into this terminal, international and domestic, and all have been late, but the problem has been worsened not only by baggage problems but no staff to see the planes in when they reach the terminal.
We shall look at flying with other airlines out of Heathrow.
Lisa Goswell, Hampton Hill, United Kingdom