Passengers have been flying from Gatwick without their luggage after a breakdown in the airport’s baggage system delayed check-ins and caused chaos in terminals.
The airport announced the problem with its system for sorting and delivering bags to planes on Twitter just after 5.30am on Friday morning.
It said: “We are working hard to rectify this issue and get passengers on the way as soon as possible … to ensure that everyone gets away on time.
“Some flights are departing without all bags, and bags will be forwarded to passengers at the earliest opportunity. All bags and passengers are being security screened as normal as the issue only affects the sortation of bags and not security screening.
“Our airlines are prioritising check-in according to earliest flight time, and passengers should arrive at the airport at the same time as they usually would.”
A spokesman for Gatwick told the Guardian conveyor belts at the sorting area had broken down. “It’s obviously an ongoing issue and we’ve got engineers working on it as we speak,” he said.
The airport announced that conveyor belts had been fixed in a tweet at 10.51am. But queues remained.
Apologies if you're queuing for check-in at the moment. Our baggage system is up and running and we're working to clear the backlog now.
— Gatwick Airport LGW (@Gatwick_Airport) May 26, 2017
Frustrated passengers complained of confusion at the airport and shared pictures on social media of hundreds of bags left inside terminals.
One passenger, Simon Armiger, tweeted:
Chaos at EasyJet bag drop Gatwick. System broken and staff seem to be just as confused. Very poor. pic.twitter.com/wlzG3W2hM7
— Simon Armiger (@simonarmiger) May 26, 2017
Another traveller, Mark Ralphs, from Brighton, wrote: “Total chaos at Gatwick airport north. Luggage belts broken. No plan. Lots of people worried about missing flights.”
The baggage system has several stages. When passengers check in their luggage, it goes through a chute behind the desk to a sorting area where it is sorted to the right airline. The luggage is then security screened before being put on to baggage trains and driven to the aircraft.
The system for handling luggage from arriving flights had not been affected, the spokesman said.
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