A ‘baggage task force’ is being dispatched by Loganair to several airports to recover bags lost in recent travel disruption.
Most of the baggage issues affecting the regional carrier have been caused by staffing and baggage system overloads at hub airports as travel demand surges back this summer.
The group of dedicated staff will work to find bags belonging to passengers who arrived at their Loganair destination to find that their luggage has not travelled with them.
Loganair claimed a “strong track record” for baggage handling and recovery, especially at airports where it carries out its own baggage handling in Scotland’s Highlands and Islands.
The airline is now seeing a “marked reduction” in baggage issues and complaints in recent days, and expects the situation to further improve over the coming weeks.
Several incidents of missing baggage have arisen because passengers on many connecting itineraries are not aware of where they need to collect their bags and re-check them.
This is particularly the case when international connections involving the need to clear Border Force and Customs on first entry to the UK are involved, according to the carrier.
For example, if connecting from an international flight to a Loganair domestic flight at Manchester, passengers must collect their baggage and return to the bag drop desks once they have cleared customs.
A new web page has been created setting out information for transfer customers.
Chief executive Jonathan Hinkles said: “Loganair flies lifeline routes and offers essential connectivity across the UK. With that in mind, we couldn’t sit back and watch airport disruption in recent weeks without getting stuck in to find solutions ourselves.
“Our baggage task force has already driven to the hub airports most affected, working through hundreds of bags in secure storage until we locate those belonging to Loganair customers – which we then repatriate to its owner.”
He added: “Although we are the UK’s largest regional airline, we’re small enough to be able to do this and it’s important to us that we can support our customers in this way.
“Having been told that there were only three bags belonging to Loganair customers awaiting delivery at one airport, the physical search by our task force at that airport found over 100 more – and each and every one of those bags is now on its way back to its owner.”