Sunday, April 17, 2022 8:28 a.m.

British Airways has reportedly stopped loading baggage on many flights and is leaving dozens of planes uncleaned as the airline struggles to cope with overwhelming Easter weekend demand.

On Thursday evening, BA reportedly ordered baggage handlers at Heathrow Airport to stop loading baggage onto short-haul flights and told them to prioritize long-haul services today, tomorrow and Monday, which should be the busiest days of this year.

With luggage sitting in the planes belly hold, BA management made the decision to cancel or delay a series of flights until the luggage had been unloaded, according to various reports over the weekend, including B2B aviation and travel publication Paddle Your Own Kanoo.

Aircraft not cleaned

The severe staff shortage has also forced BA to stop cleaning some planes as operational challenges mount due to the huge amount of Easter travelers arriving at Britain’s biggest airport.

The measures have caused an uproar on social media, with hundreds of angry travelers taking to Twitter to ask where their luggage is.

British Airways has been seen responding to many customers, telling them to flag their bags and expect their bags to be delivered “in the next few days”.

The problems led to frustration within the airline. In a recent memo, BA chief executive Sean Doyle reportedly admitted that customers and staff were “rightly fed up” with ongoing operational issues and pledged to make changes to slow the disruption.

One of the measures taken so far is a lightened spring schedule, with the airline having reduced its schedule until the end of May.

BA, along with other British airlines, have been disrupted for weeks.

Chaos and travel disruption are set to continue for weeks after BA and easyJet canceled hundreds of flights in recent weeks, leaving tens of thousands of Britons stranded at UK airports.

Airlines have blamed the problems on high levels of illness among employees caused by Covid, with at least 200 trips axed since Friday.

He said he had made efforts to make up for staff shortages by ‘arranging’ an additional reserve team at the weekend, but was forced to make ‘additional cancellations for today and tomorrow “.

Stuck Abroad

Some holidaymakers have reported being stranded abroad with no explanation or alternative route offered by airlines.

Simon Rudkins, 50, said he was due to return from a skiing trip to the Alps with his family when easyJet contacted him with less than 10 hours notice to say his flight had been cancelled.

He said his 85-year-old mother, who has dementia, had joined them for the return trip.

“She gets very confused and she doesn’t need the stress,” Rudkins said.

The freelance landscaper had to call clients who were expecting him on Monday to explain the delay and will lose money for the work, he said.

“We called easyJet to ask for alternatives. We were basically told “no, there is nothing, no flights at all”. The best you can do is fly tomorrow,” Rudkins added.

“Not because they had to cancel a flight, but because they don’t care and no explanation has been given.”

It comes after passengers were stuck in long queues at Heathrow Airport on Friday at the start of the Easter holiday.

The airport attributed the congestion to Covid checks required by destination countries and “high passenger volumes”.

But staff shortages and problems with e-gate passport checkpoints were also reported as travelers took to social media to vent their frustrations, with some saying they had waited hours to take off.

Other travelers said several of the automatic electronic gates, operated by Border Force and used to process passengers, were not working properly.