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Comment: Lost luggage
Evening Standard10.07.08
As the holiday season approaches its peak, the airlines once again show their least attractive side to passengers by failing to reunite them with their luggage when they reach their destination. The Unite union spokesman Steve Turner revealed yesterday that British Airways is still losing nearly 1,000 bags a day in Terminal 5 alone as passengers transfer between flights - an extraordinary figure. Yet the response of British Airways is to claim that baggage performance is significantly better than it was this time last year. If so, it suggests that BA's previous performance is even more dismal than most people had thought. What's more, the figure given by Mr Turner applies only to transfer passengers; there will be further bag losses for passengers on direct flights.
Some of the reasons why BA's luggage handling was so poor at the opening of Terminal 5 is clear from the submission yesterday made by BAA, its owner, to the Commons Select Committee on Transport. The company's chief executive, Colin Matthews, said that communications between BAA and British Airways had broken down before T5 opened, BA ground staff had not been given proper training and its management had drastically underestimated the number of staff that would be needed. The postmortem into the shambles that was the opening of T5 would be less depressing if it were not evident that baggage handling is still so woefully inadequate. With so many people about to go on holiday, this is one fundamental part of BA's service it has to get right.
Reader views (2)
BA also profits out of its passengers misfortunes by have a premium rate 0870 no. for calls regarding lost luggage. And it then auctions off all luggage that it can't be bothered to try and deliver. In my mind that's corporate fraud and theft. The situation is a scandal of the worst kind. And BA continues to witter on about needing a third runway. The BAA and BA can't even run the airport they have - so what chance a new runway and terminals 6/7/8 ... ?
- S Byers, Brighton, UK
On Monday night I flew back from Reggio in the South of Italy via Milan with Alitalia into Terminal 2. Not only were both flights delayed, when I arrived at Terminal 2 my bag was not with the flight. There was a shambles at the desk as one staff filling in forms for nearly 50 passengers at 10.30 at night. I filled in a form, returned home and to work. It took me two days to get through to someone at Alitalia and I have been given a reference number which supposedly helps me track the whereabouts of my luggage online! It is Thursday and nothing has happened. This is clearly not a situation that should be blamed squarely on BA.
- Emma, London
