Passengers climb on to carousel in hunt for luggage

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Police were called to chaotic scenes at Manchester Airport as holidaymakers took matters into their own hands.

One woman, who refused to be named, filmed the frustration after passengers on a Ryanair flight arrived from Porto in Portugal on Monday.

By the time she reached the baggage hall, she said “there were hundreds of people waiting”.

Some bags dated May 27 were strewn on the floor, she said – meaning they had been there three days.

She added: “A lot of people were angry. People were offering to go and help put the bags on the carousel from behind to speed up the process.”

It comes as half-term holidaymakers continue to be caught up in the chaos at airports.

Mother Kelly Kavanagh and her two children, aged five and three months, were forced to sleep on the floor at Lisbon airport, Portugal, after Ryanair cancelled their flight home.

The 39-year-old, from Dingle Liverpool, said people were “left to sleep like dogs on the floor” with no communication from Ryanair.

A post-pandemic staffing crisis is being blamed.

The industry has struggled to recruit staff to replace those workers who lost jobs or left the sector during Covid – despite having access to £8billion of taxpayer help. Yesterday, on the eighth day of chaos at UK airports, weary families in Manchester waited more than three hours for their baggage and children slept on the floor.

Delays were also reported at other airports.

TUI passenger Craig Jones tweeted: “At Bristol Airport awaiting a delayed flight – was told we could have vouchers. No show from TUI rep.Very poor show!”

Long queues were reported at checkin and security desks at Birmingham Airport. Passenger Jason Stratford described it as a “complete joke” on Twitter. He added: “Passengers this morning stuck on plane at 4am because there’s no steps – staff don’t start till 5am.”

Meanwhile, Heathrow Airport yesterday announced Terminal 2 flyers could expect delays at check-in and holidaymakers at Gatwick reported long waits.

Michael O’Leary, chief executive of discount airline Ryanair, repeated his call for the Army to be deployed to help ease the “shambolic” crisis.

But the Department for Transport said yesterday: “We have no plans to use the Army at airports. It is for operators to ensure airports and airlines are appropriately staffed.”

Mr O’Leary also hit back at Transport Secretary Grant Shapps’ claim that travel firms have “seriously oversold flights and holidays relative to their capacity to deliver”.

The airline boss said no operator “is going to deliberately sell a flight that they can’t crew or operate”, and that crew shortages often happened at very short notice.

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