Heathrow Baggage - nine out of 10 lost bags are gone for good,say BA staff

Nine out of 10 lost bags are gone for good, say BA staff

Rashid Razaq, Evening Standard

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standa...aff/article.do

http://tinyurl.com/6praq2

Nine out of 10 bags lost at the beleaguered Terminal 5 may never be
reunited with their owners, airport staff have claimed.

A security guard, who took photographs of the 5,000 cases being
processed by just nine airport workers, said staff were struggling to
cope with the backlog.

"I'll be amazed if anyone who lost their bag is going to get it back.
I reckon at least 90 per cent of bags are lost for good. There are 25
baggage handling staff working airside - and just nine are dealing
with lost bags.

"The rest are concentrating on the new bags coming in to make sure the
situation doesn't get any worse," he said.

British Airways said the luggage mountain had been reduced from 20,000
with handlers manually sorting bags after the automated system was hit
by more technical problems.

A spokesman for Heathrow operator BAA, said: "The system is now
functioning well."

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However the company rag 'BA News' stated on 3/4/2008:

BRITISH Airways teams are working around the clock to return delayed
baggage to customers.

At its peak there were more than 20,000 bags but as of 9am yesterday
[3/4/2008] 8,000 were on their way to customers, 10,000 were being
worked on and 7,000 bags were waiting to be processed.

Gareth Kirkwood, director of operations, said: "We are making every
effort to re-unite customers with their bags and once again apologise
for the difficulties they have been facing.

"The work to process delayed bags takes time as bags must undergo
security screening.

"In the past when we have had large baggage backlogs we have been able
to use the baggage systems in terminal 1 and terminal 4 to screen,
process and sort large numbers of bags.

"We decided not to fully use the system in terminal 5 to process these
bags automatically until we were confident it would help us. Therefore
we are having to do many of the processes manually."

Staff from London Gatwick, engineering, and cargo are supporting the
baggage teams, along with extra volunteers from across the business.
Many bags are being sorted, re-screened and containerised at Gatwick
airport's cargo facility, then returned to Heathrow to be loaded on to
flights.

Bags have also been sent to customers in the US for next day delivery
via FedEx.

For those customers in EU countries on the European mainland, bags are
being sent to a specialist sorting facility in Milan, which will help
to get bags back to those customers as soon as possible.

Gareth said: "We are working around the clock to try to get bags back
as quickly as possible, but due to the volumes it will take some
time."

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Emails of complaint can be sent to:


Company.SecretaryATba.com
Gareth.KirkwoodATba.com - Director of Operations
David.NoyesATba.com - Director of Customer Service, TERMINAL 5
banews.lettersATba.com - BA News, company rag

The local press can also be emailed at:

Editor Hillingdon Times bfpnewsATlondon.newsquest.co.uk,
Editor Skyport editorATskyportuk.co.uk,
Heathrow Villager inkywestATfreenet.co.uk,
Editor Gazette/Leader editorialuxbridgeATtrinitysouth.co.uk,

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