Luggage cannot be trusted. It wanders off on its own. Only this week, Heathrow, the UK’s shambolic main airport, complained about “bags not travelling with passengers”. And how is anyone supposed to tell suitcases apart when so many of them are black, griped a Frankfurt Airport boss a few days earlier.
Passengers correctly blame lost bags on airports and airlines. They are struggling to cope with a sharp recovery in air travel. Sita, an aviation IT business, says luggage snafus in airports were 17 per cent higher in July than in the same month of 2019.
Airline ground handlers are often the first point of contact for bag routing. They are a third fewer at Heathrow compared with pre-pandemic levels. That is one reason British Airways extended a cap on short-haul ticket sales from Heathrow, even as the airport’s adjusted losses narrowed to £321mn for the half year.