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British Airways lost more than one million pieces of luggage last year, making the national carrier the worst baggage handler in Europe.
A report by the Air Transport Users Council revealed that BA mishandled 23 bags for every 1,000 passengers, one for every 43 people boarding a jet. Overall, that meant the "world's favourite airline" lost 1,047,750 bags in 2006, tens of thousands every month.
Hundreds of thousands of BA's 45m passengers began their trips without clothes, toiletries, presents, valuables or climbing or skiing equipment. Many have never been reunited with their belongings.
BA, whose ongoing problems led to 28,000 suitcases piling up at Heathrow this January, described its performance as "unacceptable." "We fully apologise to customers who have been affected by delayed baggage in the past year," a spokesman said.
According to statistics supplied to the Air Transport Users Council (AUC) by 24 members of the Association of European Airlines (AEA), BA was the only airline to lose more than 1m bags.
The next worst performers were Air Portugal, Lufthansa, Air France and Alitalia, who between them lost 2.3m bags, approximately one suitcase per 50 passengers. Air Malta and Turkish Airlines were the best, losing one bag per 220.
The watchdog revealed that 5.6m bags were mishandled by European airlines last year but said the figure could be much higher as some AEA members such as Virgin Atlantic and bmi, and the budget airlines Ryanair and easyJet, did not provide data.
AUC chairman Tina Tietjen explained that lost luggage caused passengers "considerable stress, inconvenience and expense." "When passengers hand over their suitcases at check-in they should be able to expect to see them the other end," she said. "We therefore look to airlines to do all they can to improve their baggage handling.
"British Airways has told us that its performance in 2006 was not acceptable and it apologises to its customers. It also says that it is doing everything it can to put that right. "But passengers should not have to take airlines' word for it. "She added: "We would like to see 'name and shame' league tables on as wide a geographical basis as possible to encourage airlines to avoid baggage problems in the first place."
The AUC said that 85 per cent of bags were returned to their owners within 48 hours but others were "not so lucky."Airlines using large 'hub' airports performed particularly poorly and research suggested that 61 per cent of bags going astray belonged to passengers catching connecting flights.
"We accept that large network airlines such as British Airways do not entirely control their own destiny," said the report Mishandled Baggage.
"They might have to work within the constraints imposed by overcrowded terminals. "And they might not be in control of the operation and maintenance of airport baggage handling systems.
"But passengers do not care why their baggage goes astray. They just do not want it to happen. "The council provided examples of complaints it had received. One woman had spent her entire two-week holiday in Alicante, Spain, without her bag, which had been lost. The airline compensated her £400 despite her claim of £1,500, because she did not have receipts for her old items.
In another instance, a severely disabled passenger whose mobility scooter was damaged in transit was offered £25, despite not being able to use the vehicle for weeks and spending £263 on repairs.
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BA's operations director Geoff Want blamed the large numbers of bags dealt with by Heathrow, last summer's security alert and baggage problems at Terminal 4 for the difficulties. "But we accept that overall the levels of service to our customers has not been up to an acceptable standard," he said.
- INDEPENDENT
