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A baggage handler at London Heathrow says this summer’s travel chaos is the worst he’s ever seen.
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The anonymous manager told the BBC they were ‘petrified’ to go on holiday due to travel disruption.
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They added that the chances of the bags reaching their destination were “slim”.
A baggage handler at Heathrow Airport in London has said the chances of passengers’ luggage arriving at their destination are “very slim”.
The manager told the BBC the situation at Heathrow, one of Europe’s busiest airports, was “a shambles” and “maniacal”. They added that the disruption made them afraid to travel.
The BBC said the porter was employed by an airline and had been based at Heathrow for more than a decade. Speaking anonymously, the manager said the travel chaos this summer was the worst they had seen in their careers.
“I’m petrified to go on vacation,” they said. “I wouldn’t want to be transferred now – the chances of your bag doing that are very slim.”
The porter said the problems stem from a mix of staffing issues, low investment and old technology. They added that some baggage sorting systems at Heathrow were around 40 years old.
“There are not enough luggage belts for the number of flights,” they said. “You could wait half an hour for a belt when a flight arrives. Within that half hour another flight will arrive, which makes it 10 times worse.”
“It’s disheartening when you get out and see all the passengers,” they told the BBC.
London Heathrow did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment, but an airport representative told the BBC it recognizes “T2’s baggage system is old” and wants to replace it.
“There is no shortage of airport workers – all parts of the airport are operational and we have the same security capacity as in summer 2019,” the spokesperson said. .
“We are not responsible for ground handlers or airline flight personnel – both work directly for the airlines,” they said.
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