Sunday 26 June 2022 08:12 AM Baggage handler's bleak account of staff at breaking point and cleaners and ... trends now

Baggage handlers have branded Britain's airport chaos 'the worst disruption ever seen' as even pilots now load suitcases while staff flee the beleaguered sector in droves - as hundreds of frustrated holidaymakers form massive snaking queues at Manchester and Heathrow.

Teary baggage handlers have warned the 'Olympic-level strain' of recent weeks has reduced even experienced colleagues to 'emotional wrecks', and that new pressures caused by staffing shortages following pandemic-era mass layoffs have caused many workers to leave the hard-hit sector.

Saying they have just two-thirds of the staff needed to operate luggage safely, they added that baggage handlers are taking safety risks which could result in broken necks if they go wrong - just to get the bags on board and get the planes off the tarmac.

One handler, who works at one of the UK's biggest airports, told the Sunday Times: 'Passengers are waiting up to six hours for their bags. The other day I saw a cleaner driving the luggage trolley on the tarmac, unescorted, because there were not enough baggage handlers to do it. And if people think the delays are bad now, it is nothing compared to what is going to happen when children break up from school at the end of July and beginning of August.'

The bedlam at Britain's airports continued again today as passengers crammed inside Manchester's Terminal 2 at around 6am trying to drop off their luggage, while flyers formed a queue at Heathrow last night which was so long that it stretched outside T2.

It comes as:

Militant unions are asking over 16,000 workers if they want to join the more than 700 BA staff who have already committed to a walkout over pay at Heathrow.

Yesterday, ITV's Nick Dixon, correspondent at Good Morning Britain, arrived from Amsterdam at Terminal 3 in Heathrow to see piles of baggage at arrivals.

Fellow GMB colleague Kieron Clarke said: 'I am still to be reunited with my luggage, which is in another part of Heathrow along with thousands of other items. Unfortunately, staff cannot access them. Worse still, those items are now being sent from London to Amsterdam for processing because of a lack of staff in the UK.'

Ashley Burke, a reporter at CBC’s Parliamentary Bureau, also said on Twitter when she arrived there was a 10 minute delay on the plan but quick walk through security of about 15 minutes. She didn't check a bag but said she saw 'scattered [luggage] everywhere in the baggage claim area'.

One customer coming from Australia said: '[I] arrived 12:28 from Australia into @HeathrowAirport … it’s taken my bag longer to get from the plane to the baggage hall that the plan took to get from France to the gate.'

Another person claimed on Twitter they had an hour long wait for a shuttle bus for Terminal 5 and begged the airport 'please send more shuttles soon, people are missing connections'.

A further customer said: 'Heathrow Airport is a complete disorganized mess. Over an hour (and counting) waiting for a terminal bus transfer and the only solace is the fact that British Airways flights are seemingly always delayed.'

A TUI rep was seen today telling passengers that their flight to Palma has been delayed for 12 hours. Customers were then pictured sitting on floors at Manchester to wait out the delay while more passengers waited to check in and drop off their bags at

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