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ARCHIVED - Chaos at Spanish airports as arrival halls fill with piles of luggage
Barcelona and Madrid airports were jammed with unclaimed luggage over the weekend
Unbelievable scenes greeted passengers landing at Madrid’s Barajas airport and Barcelona’s El Prat over the weekend as arriving tourists had to stumble over thousands of pieces of luggage in the arrival halls, stacked up against walls and abandoned on the stationary carousels.
Throngs of holidaymakers were forced to wait for their luggage while baggage handlers cleared the backlog from previous flights, chaos which Aena blames on the companies responsible for moving suitcases between planes and the terminals rather than disorganisation at the airports.
This shocking accumulation of baggage coincides with the cabin crew strikes organised by Ryanair and easyJet staff at several Spanish airports and has further exacerbated the stress being heaped onto disgruntled travellers.
According to Aena, some 18,000 flights operated at Madrid airport last weekend, marking it as the busiest in Spain, ahead of Barcelona and Palma de Mallorca.
Aeropuerto de Madrid-Barajas. Comenzar las vacaciones sin tus maletas debe de ser 'maravilloso'. pic.twitter.com/y1Tq2lqNsi
— Jorge Fauró (@jorgefauro) July 5, 2022
Sources claim that the unfortunate “incident” was not caused by the state airport management but by airlines and their ground handling companies, and that several of the pile-ups were as a result of suitcases being delivered to arrivals much later than the passengers disembarking from flights.
Similar scenes were witnessed at UK airports last week, with many travellers forced to leave their luggage behind to be delivered later rather than waiting for several hours. The situation is unlikely to be improved by the threat of strikes from British Airways ground handling and check-in staff, who plan to schedule work stoppages later this summer at Heathrow over pay and working conditions.
Meanwhile, hundreds of flights to and from Spain have been cancelled or delayed as a result of Ryanair cabin crew strikes, which began on June 24 and have been extended for a further 12 days. Likewise, easyJet workers plan several stoppages throughout the month of July.
Image: Jorge Fauro on Twitter
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