Birmingham Airport: Two-hour baggage delays prompt anger from passengers
Passengers have hit out complaining they were left waiting for nearly two hours for baggage at Birmingham Airport.
Passengers arriving from Istanbul, Paphos and Dalaman said they were waiting for up to an hour and 45 minutes after their flights on Wednesday.
It comes after the airport announced that the last 12 months were the busiest in its 77-year history, welcoming 11 million passengers in August.
Questions have been raised that the baggage handling companies operating at the airport have not employed enough staff to deal with the increased demand.
Several fed up passengers took to Twitter to share their disgust.
Liam Mackay tweeted: "Landed at 16.04 from Istanbul... bag arrived at 17.27! Missed train to Cardiff, hopefully get home before 9!"
Eddy Tracey wrote: "any reason for the significant delays on the Paphos flight?"
A disappointed Toby Russell tweeted: "55 mins and still waiting for baggage... Poor check in service on the departure flight too... Not a great service at all!"
Ben Lyons was livid with his wait.
He wrote: "Total chaos. Getting carousels miced up and sending people to wrong ones! Hour after arrival and no bags."
Jit Patel said: "Record number of passengers gone through bhx, but ain't got enough baggage handlers. BHX JOKE"
Lauren Coyle added: "Give me my luggage, don't appreciate looking at a carousel that isn't moving for an hour."
And Alex Cleary said: "I've never waited at any airport so long for baggage, utter joke! One hour gone... still no bags from Dalaman."
Last Friday, the airport also posted its busiest single day to date, helping 44,767 passengers take to the skies.
During the last 12 months, the frequency of low-cost flights has grown by 11.5 per cent at the airport, while the number of scheduled and charter services has risen by 6.9 per cent and 2.4 per cent, respectively. Long-haul flights have increased by 26 per cent, with services to the Middle East witnessing a 34.1 per cent surge.
Services to North America and Europe have seen an increase of 32.6 per cent and 10.8 per cent.
Birmingham Airport claimed that baggage handling at the airport was outsourced to two dedicated companies, Aviator and Swissport, and wouldn't comment on any delays which had been suffered by their customers.
Aviator and Swissport also did not comment on why the delays happened, and whether they have enough staff to deal with the increasing demand when asked by the Express & Star today.
It comes just a week after passengers at the airport complained of chaos in the baggage area with masses of suitcases and bags spilling off the conveyor belts. At the time Jason Ashby@jasonashby tweeted @bhx_official terrible service, baggage carousel all block and bags all over, people arguing...no BHX in sight.
And another passenger, J lowell @R497SER tweeted @bhx_official arrived back from Marko Polo Airport earlier and was welcomed at the baggage by this. How professional.
