Passengers arriving at Bristol Airport overnight told of families with young children waiting into the early hours to be reunited with their bags, while those coming to the airport this morning to depart on early flights described the scenes of queues as ‘mayhem’.
The airport has apologised to passengers on flights which landed late on Saturday evening and into the early hours of Sunday morning who had to wait hours to be reunited with their baggage.
And the airport also said it will investigate reports that the queues to get shuttle buses from the car parks to the airport were so long people decided to walk instead.
Read more: Bristol among airports most likely for flight to be cancelled
Overnight, passengers were typically waiting more than an hour in baggage reclaim - with some up to two hours.
The delays appear to have begun after 9pm on Saturday night. One holidaymaker, called Barry, reported on Twitter that he had landed on a Ryanair flight from Malaga at 9.06pm, but didn’t get his baggage until after 10.30pm. “I know Ryanair park a long way away but this is taking the p***,” he tweeted. “Fantastic end to everyone’s holiday.”
Later, passengers on a TUI flight from Paphos suffered a similar fate, after they waited for well over an hour to be reunited with their bags.
The flight from Greece landed just after midnight - at 12.11am - but at 1.28am one passenger tweeted that the passengers were still waiting. “One hour and still no bags and not one member of staff to chat to, and no TUI reps either. Not good enough,” said Julie-Ann Haines, who labelled the situation ‘disgraceful’.
Bristol Airport apologised but said the issue was with Swissport - the baggage handling firm used by TUI and other airlines, at Bristol Airport.
“We would like to apologise for your experience,” a spokesperson told Ms Haines. “We are working with TUI's, ground handler, Swissport to improve customer experience. We are also asking customers to complaint directly to TUI as they hold the contract with Swissport for their ground services at Bristol,” she added.
Things had not improved by 2.36am. Richard John described the scene in the baggage reclaim area. “I’ve flown from Bristol many times but this is my first ever negative experience,” he tweeted. “Families with young, exhausted, screaming children waiting at least one hour 30 minutes for their baggage. I understand this has been (a) regular occurrence this summer,” he added.
Grant Pearce and his family were on the Paphos flight too, and he had some of those upset children - a two-year-old and a four-year-old. At 1.55am, he tweeted: “Ninety minutes and counting now. Any chance ground handlers have got their head out of their a***. Now have two children in floods of tears.”
Gary Creed was among the passengers waiting into the early hours. He said his flight landed at 12.25am, but he was still waiting more than an hour later. “If this is what you call service you’re mad,” he tweeted to Bristol Airport. “An hour to get the cases off the runway? If you don’t have the staff, decline the flights. Wheels down 12.25, still stood here like p***s,” he tweeted at 1.49am.
It's not the first time problems with Swissport leaving passengers waiting into the early hours at baggage reclaim have hit Bristol Airport - Bristol Live has repeatedly reported on the issue throughout the summer.
As the late night arrivals eventually left the airport, there were more scenes described by passengers as ‘mayhem’ just a couple of hours later, as people arrived early to fly on Sunday morning.
One of the issues involved queues for buses to transport people who had parked in the Silver Parking zone from the car park to the terminal.
At 6.25am, Chris Phillips reported the situation was a ‘shambles’. “Utter chaos at Silver Parking at Bristol Airport this morning,” he tweeted. “Numerous people choosing to walk down unlit road to airport rather than join huge queue for limited buses. Too many booked for too few buses,” he added.
Bristol Airport said it would investigate what happened. “Thank you for drawing this to our attention, we will investigate this,” a spokesperson for the airport replied. “The health, safety and welfare of our passengers is of our upmost importance. Our teams were in location this morning, assisting passengers and ensuring they did not miss flights,” she added.
Another person at the airport at 4am described the scene as ‘mayhem’. “I’m so glad I’ve only come here to drop off,” wrote Twitter user @GeeCeeBee. “Queues everywhere. Drop & Go’s mayhem, the queue to get ‘into’ the terminal starts here. The queue to get into Silver Parking clogs the A38 past the main entry road. Who ya gonna blame, Bristol Airport?” they wrote.
One person described the queues as ‘insane’. “Poorly organised at check in this morning,” she tweeted at 4.05am. “Everything is self service. No help when machines weren’t working. Insane queue for food and restaurants closed.”
Chris Gray said the entire experience on Sunday morning was an ‘absolute shambles’. At 7.22am he was on board his flight, but not happy. “What an absolute shambles!” he told Bristol Airport. “From the moment we arrived at the Silverzone car park to the moment we boarded the plane, every aspect of being at this airport was poorly managed. Parking, transfers, security, no food delivered to the aircraft… must do better!”
A spokesperson for Bristol Airport said the staff there were 'working tirelessly'. "I am sorry that your experience of our airport did not meet your expectations this morning, we will take your feedback onboard and make improvements for the future" a spokesperson told Mr Gray. "Our teams were working tirelessly, ensuring passengers journeys were going as smoothly as possible."
But some people praised the airport and appeared to have little trouble. Passengers with Jet2 watched the queues for easyJet check in, as they waltzed through the terminal. Nick Wood arrived super early for his flight, and noticed the long queues at the easyJet check-in. “What a brilliant check in at Bristol Airport,” he tweeted to Jet2. “Ten minutes and lovely staff, that’s how you do service, easyJet with your huge queues,” he added.
