Hundreds of missing bags at Edinburgh Airport warehouse
- Published
Swissport is storing bags at a warehouse at Edinburgh Airport
Hundreds of missing bags belonging to air passengers are being stored at a warehouse at Edinburgh Airport.
One passenger, whose luggage has been missing for two weeks, told BBC Scotland she had visited the site four times to try and trace her property.
Baggage handler Swissport said it was holding the items at the facility to work through a large backlog.
It comes as airports have struggled to cope with summer holiday passenger demand and staff shortages.
Dammy Akinyemi, from Livingston, lost her bag after arriving at Edinburgh Airport on 21 June after a holiday to Canada.
She said she searched through hundreds of bags at the Swissport warehouse.
"I was there for four hours in this unit, I looked through every single bag," she said.
"There was only three staff handling thousands of bags, and they couldn't give me any information. All they would say is, 'if it turns up we'll let you know'.
"It really upsetting because I've got personal, family stuff in the bag that I can't replace."
Dammy Akinyemi is still waiting for her luggage to be returned two weeks after her flight
Ms Akinyemi faced a three-hour wait after her Air Canada flight landed at Edinburgh Airport. When her bag didn't appear she was told to fill in a form and leave it at an unstaffed desk.
She said: "I think for over half the passengers on the plane there was no baggage, absolutely none.
"One of the airport staff said we would get an email with a tracing number.
"I didn't get anything for a week. Now I just have a tracing number that has given me no information about my bag.
"I'm very angry. It's such a nightmare of a situation."
Swissport said bags are processed as soon as they arrive at Edinburgh Airport, but a high volume of late luggage had caused the backlog.
Dammy says she spent four hours looking though bags at the warehouse
A Swissport spokesperson said: "Unfortunately, a significant number of bags from a range of airports and operators are not being loaded onto connecting flights into Edinburgh.
"Instead, they are arriving on different, later flights after most passengers have already left the airport. The knock-on effect of these missed baggage connections has created a backlog of luggage to be processed.
"We understand this is a really frustrating situation for passengers and we're working closely with our airline and airport partners to process these bags as fast as we can."
Edinburgh Airport said it appreciated the situation was "frustrating", but urged passengers to contact their airline or handling agent for missing luggage issues.
A spokesperson said: "This is a challenging time for the entire aviation industry and we know airlines and handling agents have been working hard to reunite passengers with their baggage.
"We're doing what we can to support them in this, and this includes access to secure designated storage areas on campus which is now allowing them to process items and repatriate them with their customers."