Airport boss: I feel terrible over baggage failings

The chief executive of Birmingham Airport says he feels terrible about the huge problems caused to passengers left without luggage after flying from the airport.

Speaking on BBC Radio WM's Hot Seat, Nick Barton has been answering questions from listeners, and said teams were working as fast as possible to deal with the problems.

On Tuesday, the airport said the situation was "stable" and recovery plans were "continuing to prove successful", before confirming earlier that baggage operations had been restored to normal.

One passenger described the CEO as being "completely and utterly delusional" while others expressed anger at the system failure.

Here are the key takeaways from the interview with Barton.

Barton apologised to everyone affected by the baggage issues.

Part of the screening system, which scans hold luggage before it goes on the plane had failed, he explained.

"It is fundamental for security and safety of the plane," he says of the screening system.

"As a bag goes through it scans it from thousands of different angles... it declares the bag safe or not, so it presents no danger when it goes onto the hold."

He says the part of the machine that failed is one you "would never expect to".

Barton added in almost eight years of working at the airport, he had never seen this particular problem arise.

He said the response from airport teams had been "extraordinary" but they were there to mitigate what was "inevitably" going to disrupt passengers' journeys.

Barton went on to say that there were a lot of bags affected so the sheer number of individuals meant there were delays in getting information to passengers.

Jade rang in to say she was still without her bags after flying out to Playa Blanca in Lanzarote on Saturday, using EasyJet.

"We still haven't received our bags, we haven't heard a single thing," she said.

Barton told her the volume of bags had caused knock-on effects.

He said engineers had been forced to effectively split the machine in half to get access to the part that had failed.

The back-up plan was to default to other check-in desks, he adds, but the sheer volume of bags meant it destabilised the other systems.

Jade said: "It's great to know about all the machinery, but the fact that we haven't heard a single thing from Birmingham Airport, no correspondence whatsoever... is absolutely diabolical."

She added that her son has just had a heart operation and his case had also gone missing.

Hayley flew to Turkey on Friday afternoon and said she got her bags at 01:00 BST on Wednesday.

Her family asked Tui staff at the airport what was happening, and she said they were told luggage would be on the plane.

She asked Barton: "If you all knew instantly on Friday morning, why was I not told... to take the essentials out of my hold luggage because there was going to be a delay in it getting to me?"

Barton apologised and said: "The assumption would be that these bags can get there ultimately and they could very well make the same flight," he said.

"I do not blame the front of house people for giving that advice because they would've earnestly believed that was correct."

Hayley added that upon landing the pilot informed her plane that he had just found out that there was no luggage.

"How on earth can a pilot not know that he's not holding an entire plane's worth of luggage?"

Barton said he could not speak on the specifics of what the pilot had told them.

"There would be never a question of a flight departing not knowing what the weight [of the plane] is," Barton said.

The CEO said he felt "terrible" hearing about the impact it has had on holidaymakers.

Barton said the airport never wanted to hear about the difficulties faced by passengers affected by the incident.

"We're not here for that," he added. "We're here to provide a service, we're here to be invisible for the customers who choose to use us.

"This is a major issue, there's no question about that. I'm not going to sugar coat it in any way."

He said it was "one of those things" that happened from time to time but had not happened in his eight years at the airport.

"This was a real one-off that created an incredibly difficult situation that has had all these knock-on effects," Barton said.

"It makes me feel pretty terrible to listen to it and recognise the real challenges it creates for many passengers."

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