Passengers waited so long for luggage they climbed through hatches to get it themselves
Passengers at one of the country’s busiest airports took drastic measures to try and find their luggage.
The two travellers were filmed crawling through the hatches at baggage reclaim, apparently thinking this would speed up the delays.
One woman tells a staff member at Manchester Airport they had been waiting for ‘one and a half hours’ to get their bags.
She even offers to ‘grab it’ and help the handler unload the rest of the bags.
The chaotic incident is exposed in an investigation by Channel 4 Dispatches, which sent an undercover reporter to the airport to work as a baggage handler for Swissport.
They were told customers climbing into the baggage reclaim happens ‘all the time’ and causes ‘fights’.
An unnamed airport worker said it is ‘f*****g chaos’ and the reason behind all the delays is a shortage of staff after the pandemic.
According to the programme, shifts start at 3am and are ‘absolutely brutal’, with one person covering the work of two.
A Wizz Air pilot also said their colleagues are being overworked even though they are tired.
The pilot said: ‘There is pressure for us to help out by flying on our days off. You can report sick if you are fatigued but you will lose financially if you do.’
Research conducted by Dispatches also revealed seven in ten Wizz Air flights leaving the UK last month were delayed.
Swissport, the baggage handling company used by most airlines, sacked more than 6,000 of its staff during the pandemic when people were not flying as much.
A spokesperson for the company said they have hired 4,100 more staff since January this year.
A Wizz Air spokesperson said it operated an ‘industry-leading fatigue management system’ which was ‘regularly reviewed and monitored’ by aviation regulators.
They went on to say it had hired more than 400 pilots in the past few months.
A spokesman for the Department for Transport (DfT) said in response to the claims: ‘We’ve done everything within our power to support the aviation industry, including providing £8 billion to protect jobs during the pandemic, but it’s now for the sector itself to make passengers can get away on their well-deserved summer holidays.’
In response to the investigation, Manchester Airport, whose managing director resigned in April, stressed the undercover filming was done a month ago.
Since then, 95% of passengers have passed through security in under half an hour, it said.
Around 1.7 million people flying in and out of the UK have been impacted by cancellations within 48 hours of their flight.
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