Finally summer vacation! The desire to travel is great, the chaos even greater. Reports of chaotic conditions at airports have been piling up for several weeks – and the situation doesn’t seem to be improving.
Shortly after 5.30 a.m. on Sunday, a long queue forms in front of Zurich Airport, as a photo by Blick reader reporter Elias Egli (35) from Romanshorn TG shows. He didn’t have to get on the plane that day. “Fortunately,” says Egli to Blick.
But not only when departing, there are also problems when arriving at home, as Blick reader reporter Bettina Spoerri (53) from Zurich reports. On Saturday evening she landed at Zurich Airport in an “absolute suitcase chaos”.
Passengers waited a long time for their luggage and started playing Jass
“Thousands of suitcases were lost in the halls,” says Spoerri. There would have been heaps of luggage everywhere. “The chaos was scary.” In addition, nobody would have checked that nothing was being stolen. Security? None! “Even expensive camera equipment could be seen in the mountains of luggage. You could have easily let them go unnoticed.”
Bettina Spoerri landed in Zurich at 4:20 p.m. with her husband Miklos Klaus Rozsa from Budapest. They waited almost two hours at baggage claim for their suitcases – in vain.
Many other passengers were waiting with them. “People started playing jass because they were so bored,” says Spoerri. Finally, the couple gave up hope that their suitcases would come and went to the Lost & Found counter. And again it was time to wait.
Suddenly she discovered her suitcase on another floor
“About fifty people were standing in front of us, waiting to get answers there.” But only one switch was open. “So one person had to take care of all these inquiries,” says the reader reporter.
According to an announcement, travelers had to be prepared for a waiting time of up to three hours. “We were told to go home and try to solve the problem online.” It can then take three to seven days before you have your luggage back.
Not with Spoerri. She still hoped to find her suitcase and went looking for it – with success. «After two and a half hours I saw our green suitcases in a hall on another floor!» So Spoerri was lucky in his misfortune. “I don’t want to imagine what it was like for people who changed trains in Zurich.”
“Everywhere cars were packed with luggage”
Blick reader reporter Nadja Diethelm (49) from Buchs SG also reports on the chaotic conditions on Sunday at Zurich Airport. Shortly after 1:30 p.m., she and her boyfriend landed in Zurich, coming from Crete. “Cars packed with luggage could be seen everywhere,” the reader reporter told Blick.
In addition, the passengers in the car were desperately looking for their luggage. Fortunately, she wasn’t one of them herself: “Everything was fine with our luggage.”
Five times more suitcases are currently being forwarded
Swissport, which is responsible for luggage at Zurich Airport, does not want to know about the problems. The company is not aware of any irregularities in the delivery of luggage at the baggage carousel, explains Swissport media spokeswoman Nathalie Berchtold on request: “There were no problems on Saturday or Sunday.”
She has a simple explanation for the photos that prove the suitcase chaos. “Due to the irregularities in international air traffic, five times more baggage is currently being sent on than usual.” That means: the suitcases have no place on the plane and then have to be picked up by another plane. And that could take a few days.
The amount of suitcases that were subsequently forwarded is currently larger, but a few pieces of luggage were still lost.
Passengers are not informed
As a rule, the airlines would not inform the passengers if their luggage had to be transported separately. Berchtold on Blick: “If you don’t find your suitcase on the baggage carousel, you can fill out a corresponding loss report, and then the suitcase will be sent to you as soon as it arrives in Switzerland.”
She was not aware of the individual case of reader reporter Spoerri. “It may be that the passenger was not at the baggage carousel in time,” said the Swissport spokeswoman. Because the suitcases from the flight from Budapest had arrived at the baggage carousel. “After 29 minutes, the suitcases of this flight were on the belt.”
If the suitcases are not picked up, a Swissport employee will take care of them. The luggage will then be taken off the conveyor belt and sent home to the passengers – according to Berchtold’s explanation of the Blick reader reporter’s photos.
“One of us always stood by the line”
However, Spoerri and her husband insist that they waited at the luggage association. “We took turns. One of us always stood by the assembly line – even long after suitcases had stopped coming,” says Spoerri.
Berchtold, on the other hand, confirms that only one “Lost & Found” counter was open. However, this is not the only way passengers can report lost luggage. “There are several ‘Lost & Found’ machines where you can fill out a corresponding form.”
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