An American tourist has been stranded in Edinburgh for two weeks without luggage after flying into Edinburgh on an Aer Lingus flight on 17 June.
Brigid Schulte, a writer, speaker and director from Washington, D.C., landed in the Scottish Capital without her luggage, and with only one pair of clothes for her trip. Two weeks later, and she’s still traveling without her bag.
During her time in Edinburgh, Schulte was forced to dry her sole pair of jeans on top of a towel rack and purchase basic necessities for her trip.
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After 72 hours without her bag, someone at Aer Lingus called to tell Schulte her bag was arriving in Edinburgh from Dublin. However, when she arrived at the Edinburgh Airport to collect, no one was on duty at Swissport baggage handlers and the airport could not help.
“Going on 72 hours no bag. Swissport said 10,000+ bags lost. Disgraceful,” she Tweeted after the gaffe.
Despite her frustration, Schulte is using the incident to point out the issues with aviation’s labour industry.
“For [all of the] frustrated people missing bags, flights and waiting in unbelievably long lines, I get it, but don't take it out on the harried airport workers who are trying to do the job of ten people because of the severe and unprecedented staff shortage in the industry,” she said.
“And don't blame the shortage on supposedly ‘lazy’ workers who don't want these airport jobs. Or on Brexit for shrinking the pool of workers willing to take crummy paying jobs with terrible hours and precarious contracts. Take your rage and frustration out where it belongs - on the company executives who decided years ago to outsource aviation services to cut costs and boost profits (like in so many other industries).”
She accused outsourcing companies of ‘squeezing labour to the point of cruelty with poor pay, poor hours, and ‘precarious zero-hour contracts.’
“So if you're wondering why you don't have your bag - like me - after six days. If you're wondering why your flight is cancelled or delayed. If you're stuck in a line for hours at security, be polite to the stressed and overworked security worker and be sure to take your anger and frustration to the company executives and let them know their business model is the problem,” she continued.
“Good, fair work is what makes business, society & democracy work. Tell the executives that. And commit to supporting businesses that only provide good work.”
Schulte said she is about to travel home now, but she still has no idea where her luggage is. She is desperate to get her bag back because it has important notebooks for work inside as well as her other belongings.
A spokesperson for Emerald Airlines, operator of Aer Lingus Regional services, said the company is "aware of supply chain issues at Dublin, other UK and European airports and among third party suppliers which are resulting in some customers experiencing a level of service below what they expect, including delayed baggage."
"Services provided by airports and third party supplier are outside of our control. Our team on the ground is continuing to work closely with all the relevant handling agents to retrieve delayed or misdirected baggage as quickly and efficiently as possible," said an Emerald Airlines spokesperson.
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