Luggage chaos, flight delays at Suvarnabhumi airport

Passengers arriving at Suvarnabhumi airport have been forced to wait five or six hours for their baggage and numerous flights have been delayed since Saturday because off problems with Thai Airways’ ground operations.

The disruptions began on Sept 26 and continued into Sunday, leaving many passengers and their luggage stranded at the airport.

Suvarnabhumi airport said on Sunday that it had received complaints from Thai Airways passengers about delayed departures, as well as from arriving passengers who had faced lengthy waits to collect their baggage.

An investigation found that flooding in several areas had affected the ability of ground-handling staff employed by Thai Airways International Plc to travel to work. As a result, the airline had insufficient ground staff to handle its operations.

The situation was compounded by malfunctions involving some of Thai Airways’ baggage carts, which further disrupted ground-handling operations for both departing flights and the unloading of baggage from arriving flights.

The problems resulted in delays to some departing flights, while passengers arriving at Suvarnabhumi had to wait significantly longer than usual for their luggage. Baggage from several flights was also left behind at the airport.

Suvarnabhumi airport said it was working urgently with Thai Airways to increase its ground-handling workforce, repair the faulty baggage carts and provide replacement equipment to speed up the handling and transportation of delayed baggage.

The airport has also coordinating with the airline to display baggage status information on airport screens and make regular announcements in baggage-claim areas so passengers could keep track of their luggage.

The airport said it had redirected staff to baggage-claim and service areas to assist passengers, provide information and coordinate with the airline to address the disruption.

It advise passengers requiring assistance to call the AOT 24-hour contact centre on 1722.