Qantas: outsourced baggage handler says one in 10 bags not making flights at Sydney domestic terminal

A surge in lost luggage, poor on-time performance and cancellation rates at Qantas has contributed to chaotic scenes at Australian airports this year. Photograph: Loren Elliott/Reuters

As many as one in 10 pieces of luggage on average are either getting lost or not being loaded onto Qantas domestic flights each day at Sydney airport, according to a baggage handler who works for the company that the carrier outsourced jobs to.

Guardian Australia can separately reveal that Swissport – one of the main companies Qantas has outsourced to supply baggage handling services – has itself been forced to contract two separate labour hire firms to find workers for shifts that Qantas has contracted it to fill.