Passengers left without baggage amid airport problems

Problems with Birmingham Airport's baggage system are continuing, with some passengers left without their luggage.

One passenger described scenes at the airport as "utter carnage" after the airport said it was experiencing issues with its baggage system, affected outbound flights.

The airport issued an update at around 05:40 BST warning passengers the problems were ongoing, but that engineers were on site working as quickly as possible to resolve it.

Russell Griffin, from Tamworth, flew from Birmingham to Ibiza on Friday morning. He said "it had been utter carnage from the point we arrived" and that his luggage, along with many others on the flight, had been left at the airport.

Eve Sandle said she had travelled to Turkey with her mum and they had been left "with only the clothes we are standing in".

An announcement was made on their flight to Dalaman from Birmingham on Friday evening by the pilot, telling passengers that no luggage had made it onto the plane.

She had received a text from airline TUI saying "some of your bags on TOM810 may not have arrived today," and advising passengers of next steps.

"The text couldn't be further from the truth," she said, "they knew no cases were on that plane."

"Not a TUI rep to be seen to support in the airport, and hotel reps haven't even been made aware of the issues," she added.

"We are in a foreign county with only the clothes we are standing in."

"I have brought my mum here for a week and it's not quite gone to plan," she added.

A Birmingham Airport spokesperson said: "We are continuing to experience an issue with our baggage systems which is impacting some outbound luggage.

Engineers are on site and working to resolve this issue as quickly as possible. Terminal colleagues are also working hard to ensure baggage in terminal is being processed as quickly as possible.

We expect this to cause inconvenience for some passengers, and we sincerely apologise for this. Those due to travel today, should still arrive at the airport in line with Airline advice.

Some flights from Bristol Airport are being diverted through Birmingham after flights were suspended due to a runway defect.

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