Airport worker’s real-life Tetris videos show behind-the-scenes workings of baggage handling

Mesmerising: Sugue has earned 622,000 followers, stacking luggage on TikTok. Photo / TikTok, @DJSugue

A Canadian baggage handler has found fame for his videos, taking travellers into the underbelly of plane cargo holds.

DJ Sugue, who is based out of Vancouver International Airport, has been sharing the daily experience of a ramp agent. Following the journey taken by passengers’ bags, videos of the “strangely satisfying” process of packing luggage into cargo bins of passenger planes are a surprise hit.

His “real-life Tetris” skills have earned the airport worker over half a million TikTok followers.

The TikToker shows the unseen journey of luggage after it disappears behind the check-in screen.

A natural showman, Sugue films himself performing press-ups and crunches in the cramped space below deck on a Boeing 737.

It’s not a job for the claustrophobic. However, he says that the space is something you get used to. Others asked where they could ‘sign up’, saying he made it look fun.

Loading a full passenger plane can take between 20 to 30 minutes, with each piece of baggage arriving on a carousel, known as a “luggage snake”.

“We can speed it up too or slow it down,” he says, depending on the difficulty of the consignment.

The speed of a job largely depends on the shape and type of cargo being loaded. He says the heavy two-wheeled duffel bags are “the worst” and that life would be easier if everyone travelled with hard-top, rolling suitcases.

The job requires more than a love of spatial reasoning. As a ramp agent and marshal, he also drives “push tractors”, pushing jet planes out for takeoff and marshalling arrivals into the bays.

Another part of the process passengers rarely see is how planes leave the gate.

“If you were wondering how an airplane reverses from the gate,” he titled one video showing Air Canada’s Auckland service being piloted on to the runway by his tractor.

Few travellers realise that most jet engine aircraft cannot run in reverse. They have to be driven by tugs.

One of the biggest perks of the job is having access to standby tickets. He recently spent seven days in Australia, courtesy of his airport work.