Edinburgh Airport chaos as terminal 'flooded' with bags after passengers forced to leave without luggage

Photos show the airport terminal ‘flooded’ with bags.

Edinburgh Airport has been ‘flooded’ with piles of unclaimed luggage, after baggage delays saw passengers forced to go home without their items.

Some passengers have taken to social media to complain about Scotland's busiest airport being full of baggage. One posted photos of baggage piled up in the terminal and told the Evening News the airport was ‘flooded’ on Thursday with cases and bags.

Passengers were met with similar scenes at the airport last summer. Bosses said seasonal staff would be recruited earlier to avoid a repeat of the disruption again.

Edinburgh Airport has been 'flooded' with left luggage

One woman said: “I've not taken big suitcases for my trips in years due to luggage issues, as my favourite suitcase just disappeared after a check-in while I was waiting for it on arrival. This is an ongoing issue at Edinburgh Airport, people complained before as well.

"As far as I know these suitcases are from delayed flights where no luggage handling staff were available and usually the airport delivers it to people's addresses a few days after their arrival. I was travelling in February, and it was the same, maybe a bit less suitcases were there abandoned. Last night the whole baggage area was flooded with them.”

It comes amid recent reports of staff shortages at baggage handling agent Swissport, which is impacting its operation. Swissport is understood to be having problems hiring staff and is short of both staff and equipment including luggage crates and trailers to move bags between the terminal and the planes. The handler is responsible for check-in, baggage and other services for 26 airlines in Capital, including Ryanair, Edinburgh’s biggest, which carries one in three of its passengers.

The workforce shortage has been linked to increased passenger abuse of staff. It has been reported that Swissport is drafting in dozens of extra staff from other airports in an attempt to resolve the problem.

Airport bosses advised passengers to contact handlers directly. A spokesperson for Edinburgh Airport said: “The transportation, delivery and secure storage of baggage is the responsibility of handling agent companies which are contracted by airlines. As an airport we will continue to support our partners where we can, and this includes by sourcing and providing additional resource for them.”