Many bags missing from Edinburgh Airport warehouse

A warehouse is located at Edinburgh Airport that houses hundreds of bags left behind by air passengers.

Many bags missing from Edinburgh Airport warehouse

A warehouse is located at Edinburgh Airport that houses hundreds of bags left behind by air passengers.

BBC Scotland was informed by a passenger whose luggage had been missing for over two weeks that she had visited the location four times to trace her belongings.

Swissport, a baggage handler, stated that it was keeping the items at the facility in order to clear a large backlog.

This is because airports are struggling to deal with summer holiday passenger demand, and staff shortages.

Dammy Akinyemi from Livingston lost her bag on 21 June, after she arrived at Edinburgh Airport after a vacation to Canada.

She claimed she looked through hundreds of bags in the Swissport warehouse.

She said, "I spent four hours in the unit and I went through every bag."

"There were only three people handling thousands of bags and they wouldn't provide any details. They would only say that if the bag turns up, we'll let them know.

"It's really upsetting, because I have personal, family items in the bag that can't be replaced."

After her Air Canada flight landed at Edinburgh Airport, Ms Akinyemi was forced to wait for three hours. Her bag did not arrive so she had to fill out a form and drop it off at an unstaffed desk.

She stated that she believed there was no luggage for more than half of the passengers.

"One of the staff at the airport said that we would receive an email with a tracking number.

"I didn’t get anything for over a week. Now, I have a tracing code that doesn't give me any information about my bag.

"I'm very angry. It's a terrible situation.

Swissport stated that bags are processed immediately upon arrival at Edinburgh Airport. However, there was a backlog due to high volumes of late luggage.

Swissport spokesperson stated that "Unfortunately, a significant amount of bags from a variety of airports and operators aren't being loaded onto connecting flights to Edinburgh."

They are instead arriving on later flights, after the majority of passengers have left the airport. This has led to a backlog in luggage processing.

"We are aware that this can be a very frustrating situation for passengers. We're working closely together with our airline partners and airport partners to expedite these bags."

Edinburgh Airport acknowledged that the situation was frustrating, but advised passengers to contact their airline for any missing luggage concerns.

A spokesperson stated that: "This is an extremely difficult time for the whole aviation industry. We know that airlines and handling agents have worked hard to reunite passengers and their baggage."

"We are doing everything we can to help them in this. This includes accessing secure storage areas on campus that allow them to process items and return them to their customers."