Heathrow passengers face agonising wait to see if luggage shows up at holiday destination after British Airways baggage meltdown

BRITISH Airways passengers are facing an agonising wait to see if their luggage shows up at their holiday destination after a baggage meltdown at Heathrow airport.

Frustrated flyers were stuck in queues of up to two hours at the Terminal Five bag drop this morning - before some were forced to depart without their luggage.

The shambles come just a day before most British schools break for the summer holidays and amid threats of summer strike action.

BA told the Sun Online a "small number" of passengers had been asked to fly without their bags and that they would arrive either today or after a maximum of 24 hours.

'A DISGRACE'

Mounds of bags were seen stacking up at the airport earlier after a fault with the bag drop between 8 and 10am.

Furious holidaymakers made their flights but were left non-plussed by the "poor" communication.

Amit Babbar tweeted: "BA choosing not to ground flights making people travel leaving their bags behind, so people will have to deal with no bags at the other end!"

The way you are running T5 today is a disgrace; no messaging about what the problem is with check in and bag drop and apparently you aren’t even guaranteeing that luggage will arrive at the destination. Why?

Stewart Room

A spokeswoman for the airline responded on Twitter by saying he could "purchase essential items such as clothing and toiletries" but should "keep costs as low as possible".

Passenger Stewart Room also raged: "The way you are running T5 today is a disgrace; no messaging about what the problem is with check in and bag drop and apparently you aren’t even guaranteeing that luggage will arrive at the destination. Why?"

Comedian Eddie Izzard was among those in the queue earlier today, tweeting: "I hope BA can get this moving soon as passengers have been waiting a long time now."

SYSTEM 'COLLAPSE'

Furious David Rose wrote: "Chaos at Heathrow Terminal 5.

"Entire bag system has been down for more than hour. No one can drop their luggage.

"Great start to a holiday, not. Thanks British Airways! You deserve those £2+ billion profits!"

He later tweeted that the system had "collapsed"; and that he was likely to miss his flight.

Cancer nurse Mary Tanay said she had to be booked onto a later flight, tweeting: "What a truly stressful morning for all - staff and passengers alike."

The airline told passengers on Twitter: "Due to a baggage system issue, it's taking us longer to accept baggage than we'd like.

"Our team at London Heathrow are approaching passengers and helping those who have imminent departures. We appreciate your patience whilst you wait."

Heathrow's Terminal 5 is the newest of the airport's terminals and opened in 2008 at the cost of £4billion.

The number of bag drop machines was increased to 72 in March after customers praised their "ease of use", a BA spokesperson said.

Today Ryanair passengers were warned they could be hit by delays and disruption in the wake of proposed strikes at Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted later this month.

The unwelcome news came as Brit tourists were told they could also face a money "shock" on their summer holidays as sterling slid to a two year-low amid uncertainty over Brexit.

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