Scottish airline Loganair is doubling up efforts to tackle recent travel disruption and help stranded passengers who have lost their belongings.
The company, which operates dozens of flights across the north and north-east, has launched a dedicated task force to ease pressure on airport staff and support customers.
As part of the scheme, a group of dedicated employees will be sent to major hub airports and partner airlines to locate lost luggage belonging to Loganair customers, and return it to the owner.
It comes after months of travel chaos at airports across the UK, with hundreds of passengers affected by cancelled or delayed flights every day.
The situation has recently escalated even further with many Loganair, as well as other airline, customers were left stranded without their personal belongings for days, and sometimes weeks.
Just last week, Elena Murdoch, 54, told The P&J her family had to cancel their “dream holiday” to Greece as their luggage – containing clothes and everyday essentials for six weeks – never made it to Aberdeen after their Loganair flight from Manchester.
Most of the issues are said to have been caused by staffing and baggage system overloads at hub airports as demand for air travel surges back this summer.
Luggage situation expected to improve
But Loganair chief executive Jonathan Hinkles now hopes the new targeted baggage team will improve the situation for their customers.
He 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.
“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.”
Mr Hinkles added that the task force has already proved successful, with the team seeing a reduction in baggage issues and complaints in recent days.
The company has also launched a new webpage with further guidance for transfer customers who might be unsure whether their bags need to be collected and re-checked or not.
Mr Hinkles added: “As ever, we are grateful to our customers for their continued patience at this time and we are confident that our new task force will help solve challenges currently faced across the travel sector.”
Conversation