Frankfurt Airport boss blames black suitcases for luggage woes

Passengers have been told to pack carry-on or, if they must check luggage, to choose a bag that is not black. Photo / Pexels

If you use a black suitcase as a checked bag on flights, you may be contributing to the baggage chaos, according to the boss of a major European airport.

The head of Franfurt Airport, Stefan Schulte, has blamed the problem of lost bags on black suitcases, according to the Guardian, reporting on news from German media.

Last week, Schulte said passengers should travel with carry on when possible but, if they had to check a bag, choose one that is easy to spot (especially in a mountain of bags).

Black may be a popular colour of suitcase, but the airport boss said it made bags "hard to distinguish them from each other".

Frankfurt Airport spokesperson Thomas Kirner agreed."Many people travel with black suitcases on wheels which makes identifying them very time-intensive," he said.

Last week, around 2000 suitcases were stranded at the airport according to local news site Bild.

Like many airports around the globe, Frankfurt Airport cut thousands of jobs during the pandemic and is now struggling to facilitate the quick peak in air passenger demand following the ease in restrictions.

Following the pandemic layoffs, Heathrow Airport chairman, Lord Paul Deighton, said more than half of ground handlers across Europe have permandenly left the industry. These workers are responsible for a critical and diverse range of jobs in airports from loading bags to managing check-in desks.

Ground-handling companies are trying to fill the positions, "but if their airline customers won't pay market rates, then they aren't able to fill the posts," Deighton wrote on Tuesday in the Telegraph.

After cutting it's staff by 4000, Reuters reported Frankfurt airport has only rehired 1,000 ground service staff as of July 6.

For this reason, Schulte predicted disruptions at Frankfurt Airport would go on for two to three months.

As demand hit peaks during the summer period in the US, UK and Europe, so does the strain on the aviation sector, leading many in the industry to point the finger of blame.

Swissport CEO criticised governments last weekend for their "invented political science", which led to huge redundancies, reported swissinfo.ch.

Warwick Brady, who heads the major ground-handling company, told Swiss media outlet Luzerner Zeitung that "after the massive job cuts that were absolutely necessary at the time, there is now a lack of staff everywhere."

Last week, London Heathrow Airport's chairman slammed airlines like Emirates and Qatar Airways, which have been blaming the airport for the travel disruptions, especially after it's call to cap daily passenger departures.