Gatwick airport has drafted in an additional 60 staff to support baggage handling firm Swissport, as it prepares for one of the busiest weekends of the year.
Swissport has recently been dogged by staffing issues, which has seen some passengers facing long delays to collect luggage.
Gatwick said while it doesn’t “anticipate issues” with arriving baggage delivery this weekend, it does have a “robust contingency plan in place”, this includes “providing an additional 60 staff to support the Swissport operation”.
“We would like to re-iterate that the issues we saw last weekend were limited to arriving bags and delivery has been good since the weekend. No departing passengers were affected as some reports have inaccurately suggested,” the airport said in a statement.
Gatwick added that despite the issues, on average bags are delivered on time for 95 per cent of flights to Gatwick. “We continue to work closely with our handlers and airlines to ensure our high service standards are met.”
Swissport said in a statement: “Swissport can confirm that baggage handling services to its client airlines during the period to 7am this morning was good and within its targets.
“There were no appreciable delays to Swissport customer airlines outbound or inbound at London Gatwick. Swissport can only reiterate that it has robust systems in place during the forthcoming weekend and will remain in place throughout the peak summer period.”
The company also confirmed that the issues are not related to staff on zero-hours contracts, which has been previously reported.
Last weekend, passengers arriving at Gatwick’s south terminal faced long delays in collecting their baggage, with some reportedly waiting up to three hours.
After those problems Swissport issued a statement: “Despite having already increased our resources to support the off schedule activity we were still unable to fully accommodate the handling of off-schedule arriving aircraft during this period. This resulted in the long baggage delivery times experienced by passengers."
The company added: “Swissport will continue to work closely with all its business partners to minimise any inconvenience to passengers during any times of future schedule disruption.”
The firm handles baggage at most of Britain’s major airports including Heathrow, Luton, Manchester and Edinburgh.
Monarch Airlines, which operates services to dozens of Gatwick destinations from Gatwick, has terminated its contract with Swissport and will wait for the 120-day notice period to expire before moving to a new contractor. Other airlines are also considering pulling out of their contracts, it’s claimed.