Edinburgh Airport baggage disruption: United Airlines passenger finds his missing case left in terminal for 12 days

Handling agent Menzies Aviation criticised for ‘chaotic situation’

An airline passenger has recovered his missing suitcase after spotting it piled up at Edinburgh Airport 12 days following his arrival from the United States last month.

The latest traveller’s tale of woe came as Scotland’s busiest airport said the baggage problems were easing with only some 7,500 of its 1.5 million July passengers being affected.

Gary Winfield, who arrived with his wife on a United Airlines flight from Chicago on July 3, said the delay in retrieving his bag happened despite the airline’s app showing it had reached Edinburgh on the flight the couple were on. The airline confirmed this and said the bag would be delivered to them, but this did not happen.

Edinburgh Airport said only 0.5 per cent of its passengers had suffered mislaid bags in July. (Photo by Karen McAvoy)

Mr Winfield said it meant he had to buy new clothes to attend his son’s graduation at the University of Edinburgh.

Then, on July 15, United Airlines told him to go to the airport where staff would be there to hand over the bag

But Mr Winfield said he was met with a “pretty chaotic situation”, with no [handling agent] Menzies Aviation staff at its desk, and when he phoned a number displayed there, he was initially told the firm did not handle United’s baggage.

Leaving air passengers in the dark about missing baggage at Edinburgh Airport is a major fail for handling agent Swissport

The empty Menzies Aviation desk which confronted passengers with mislaid bags (Photo by Gary Winfield)

He said: "Disillusioned at this point and having been at the airport for a couple of hours, I decided to take one more walk through the terminal.

“As I was about to leave, I sneaked a peek at a random pile of bags hidden behind partitions in the open area of the airport. Sitting there was a case which looked like it could be mine.

"I thought I was seeing things. I found my lost bag after 12 days of turmoil and stress."

Still unable to find any Menzies staff, he was then assisted by workers from Swissport, another handling agent, who allowed him to take the case after checking his identity.

Mr Winfield said: “I don't know what to say about Menzies, I've heard they are extremely short staffed, I have drawn my own conclusions which are still raw.”

He said he had contacted The Scotsman “to try to generate some positive change in the situation for the good of the airport and the country's tourism business”.

Menzies Aviation senior vice president UK Phil Lloyd said: “We are striving to uphold our high service standards, and we apologise to Mr Winfield for his experience. Edinburgh Airport continues to see an increased number of delayed baggage arriving from other airports.

"We understand the distress and frustration lost or misplaced baggage can cause passengers and are working hard to minimise the impact baggage delays have on people.

"Since Mr Winfield’s experience at Edinburgh Airport, several new procedures and additional resources have been introduced, including upgrading technology used at the airport to speed up the process of repatriation once bags arrive into Edinburgh.”

Edinburgh Airport said it had drafted in a baggage courier firm which had made a big difference in reducing the number of mislaid bags.

Its spokesperson said: "The transportation, delivery and secure storage of luggage is the role of handling agent companies which are contracted by airlines.

“As an airport, we will continue to support our partners where we can, and this includes by sourcing and providing additional resource for them.”