Missing bags misery: Airline group head feels passengers’ frustration

Piles of baggage at Auckland Airport on Christmas Day. Photo / Ant Clausen

The head of an airline group in New Zealand says she understands the frustration of passengers whose bags are going missing at high rates during the summer travel peak.

Passengers are paying sky-high fares and Cath O’Brien, executive director of the Board of Airline Representatives New Zealand (Barnz) agreed this aggravated the grievance felt by passengers who were enduring a “sub optimal” experience as bags were misplaced.

“I absolutely feel the frustration that people have,” she said.

Not being able to get in touch with airline call centre staff was also exacerbating people’s anger.

Both problems were caused largely by the same underlying problem - a shortage of staff, she said.

Air New Zealand has been trying to rebuild its call centre staff back up for most of the year and is under fire on social media from aggrieved passengers finding it impossible to get through to people.

Air New Zealand has its own baggage handlers, while Swissport and Menzies provide services to other airlines.

Throughout the aviation system in New Zealand it is estimated 30 per cent more staff are needed.

O’Brien said Covid illness and isolation requirements had affected about 5 per cent of those who were on the job. Immigration settings had made it difficult to bring in staff from overseas during the year.

Winter storms in North America - in places the worst in four decades - have worsened the missing luggage problem for New Zealand travellers,

Luggage makes the same long journey to New Zealand that passengers do. Just like passengers it can make potentially multiple airport connections before arriving at its destination.

Missed connections can occur along the journey if flights are delayed or changed, Barnz says. Baggage is then “mishandled” and follows behind the traveller.

“New Zealand faces a particular challenge around mishandled baggage as we are at the end of long international routes, with relatively less international connectivity,” she said.

“This means that mishandled baggage tends to arrive in large amounts, from multiple different misconnections.”

Flight disruptions arising from extreme weather events usually mean more mishandled bags.

When the mishandled baggage arrives at Auckland Airport - long after travellers have made onward domestic connections - ground handlers are faced with the challenge of reuniting bags with customers.

After being identified, each mishandled bag requires biosecurity checks to make sure New Zealand is protected from pests and diseases.

Government agencies, Auckland Airport and airlines were collaborating on ways to help ease disruption for travellers. More space had been allotted to sort luggage and 20 Air NZ volunteers had been mustered.

“We’re seeing a lot of above and beyond behaviour, which is great. That said, we still have a problem.”

The easing of China’s border restrictions and the prospect of more flights into Auckland carrying Chinese visitors would be great for tourism and extra capacity would help put a lid on airfares, she said.

However, this could put more pressure on stretched resources.

“There’s so many great things about it. However, I am concerned that the aviation ecosystem is already under pressure at all points. Additional demand is going to exacerbate the challenges that we see so we really are going to need to get on top of this.”

Tips to minimise the impact of missing bags

• Pack medication and valuable items in your carry-on luggage.
• Securely label your bags with your name and address.
• If you arrive at the international airport without your bag, make sure you fill in a “delayed baggage form” before leaving the arrivals hall – this helps process delayed bags quickly.
• Know the colour of your bags, even the make, and any unique markers (such as ribbons) to make it easier for ground staff to find them.