Manchester Airport passengers report major baggage delays over weekend

A number of passengers flying into Manchester Airport this weekend said they were greeted on arrival by severe baggage delays caused by IT problems.

Passengers have been in touch with the M.E.N to share their experiences - including one woman who left the airport to go back home to Sheffield without her luggage and another who claimed she waited four hours before getting their belongings.

Worst hit were those travelling on the TUI flight from Turin to Manchester on Sunday afternoon (February 6).

READ MORE: 'We don't want to be Covid police': Fishmonger's left stung by criticism of its social distancing measures - before other customers stepped in

Having boarded the plane at 4.50pm local time - four hours after their intended departure - the pilot addressed passengers to apologise for the long delay.

Passenger Dylan Renshaw claims the pilot told them there had been a ‘serious failure and systematic breakdown of the baggage system at Manchester Airport’.

“The pilot explained that our four-hour delay was because of the knock-on effect of the problems they’d had in Manchester,” Dylan, from Derbyshire, told the M.E.N.

“As a result of that, we had no hot food available on the flight and we received no communication from the airline or airport whatsoever during this time.”

Arriving in Manchester just after 6pm, passengers on board the TOM2727 flight ended up waiting more than an hour and a half before they were informed their baggage was not going to be offloaded.

“There must have been around 300 passengers stood for nearly two hours before someone from the baggage reception told us they couldn’t offload the bags,” Dylan explained.

“They said no baggage handlers had been allocated to the flight. They didn’t have anyone to