Edinburgh Airport baggage reclaim: Passenger's frustration that no staff in sight to help over missing luggage

Robin and Joyce McEwan flew home to Edinburgh a week ago, but Mr McEwan's luggage did not appear on the carousel.

An Edinburgh Airport passenger who waited a week for his missing luggage has hit out at the lack of help and information available when bags go astray.

Robin McEwan and his wife Joyce, who live in the Shandon area of the Capital, flew to Edinburgh from Southampton with Loganair on Friday July 7 after arriving back from a 14-day Mediterranean cruise. But although his wife’s luggage arrived safely, Mr McEwan’s case never appeared on the carousel at baggage reclaim. And he said it was frustrating that there were no staff in sight to give help or guidance. He said: “In an airport the size of Edinburgh you shouldn’t be left wondering what to do when you don’t get your luggage.”

Mr McEwan was finally reunited with his case when it was delivered to his house on Friday evening. He said it had been “chaos” when he and his wife reached the reclaim hall. “There were cases that had been stacked up against the wall from previous flights which no-one had collected. The carousel was stacked full of cases and it was stopping and starting and some of the passengers were pulling cases off just to help it to move.

He said his wife’s case eventually came through, but his did not appear. “You’re left with the sign above you saying ‘The delivery is now completed’ so you’re feeling frustrated, there’s no-one to ask, there’s no staff about. There’s a room at the end saying ‘Baggage Office’ and I went there but there was nobody about. I hung about and eventually two guys with hi-vis jackets came in and I explained what had happened but they said they couldn’t help, they only worked for Easyjet.”

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The men directed him to a desk for Loganair’s baggage handlers Menzies Aviation through some doors and two staff gave him a form, but disappeared before he had completed it. “The place was deserted. I had no-one to hand it back to once it was filled in. Then a couple of other people arrived and were asking what you do about a lost case. They found a form and started filling it in.”

He said he left his form on a staff desk and left. After hearing nothing, he tried to contact Menzies Aviation by phone but could get no answer. “I don’t know if that form was ever read – I’ve had no feedback.”

He said something similar had happened to him some years ago, but there had been a counter at the end of the baggage hall and there was a queue of people reporting their baggage missing. “They were all given tags and their names and addresses were taken and I was contacted within 24 hours to say my bag would be delivered the next day.

"Surely in a baggage reclaim there should at least be a desk or a person representing the airport to take complaints or give advice or information. As it was, you were just let standing, think ‘What do I do?’ There was absolutely no advice, no information, nobody taking your details to get back to you.”

He said he didn’t know what had happened to his luggage. “There’s no indication as to whether it was even put on the plan or whether it was sent up and has been lying in a bundle of cases somewhere and just never got put on the carousel.”

A spokesperson for Edinburgh Airport said: “The transportation and delivery of luggage is the role of handling agent companies which are contracted by airlines. Our expectation of handling agents is that they should ensure desks passengers use to directly log luggage issues are staffed. As an airport we’ll continue to support our partners where we can, and this includes by sourcing and providing additional resource where possible.”

Phil Lloyd, senior vice-president UK, Menzies Aviation, said: “Menzies Aviation is striving to uphold our high service standards, and understand the distress and frustration lost or misplaced baggage can cause passengers. To provide support to our airline and airport partners, and their passengers, we have recently reviewed and implemented a change of process at Edinburgh Airport. This enables passengers to submit a missing baggage report online which can be accessed on our website, or at our airport counters at any time.”