Chaos has gripped Suvarnabhumi Airport due to a shortage of ground-handling staff following flooding in the capital, with passengers complaining of lengthy waits for their baggage and a lack of clear information about when their luggage would arrive.
Thai Airways International said earlier that some of its ground-handling staff were unable to reach the airport, contributing to delays in sorting and delivering passengers’ baggage. Some baggage carts were also out of service, further disrupting ground operations.
A number of passengers have taken to social media and spoken to local media about waits of four to six hours to collect their luggage, with many saying the lack of communication was more frustrating than the delay itself.
One passenger arriving from Osaka on September 26 said she waited almost six hours for her baggage before deciding to leave the airport without it.
The passenger, actress Sananthachat Thanapatpisal, said she arrived at about 9:30pm and initially expected to collect her baggage within an hour, but the wait stretched to two, three and eventually almost six hours.
She said airport staff told passengers that flooding had caused a shortage of baggage-handling personnel.
She eventually left the airport at about 3:30am without her luggage. She later learned that it had arrived and had been placed on the baggage carousel at about 8am the following morning.
She also complained about a lack of drinking water and food in the baggage-claim area during the long wait, as well as difficulties finding transport home.
Another female passenger returning from South Korea on a Thai Airways flight said she could not find her baggage after arriving at Suvarnabhumi and was forced to wait for several hours before deciding to go home and return to the airport the following day.
Her friend arrived at the airport in the afternoon and repeatedly tried to contact officials for information, but was unable to get a clear answer about when the baggage would arrive.
“Officials kept saying they would check and that the baggage was downstairs, but we still did not know when we would get it. We had already been waiting for a very long time,” she said, adding that the most frustrating aspect of the situation was the lack of clear communication and information, with different officials reportedly giving passengers different answers.
This made it difficult for passengers to make plans for onward travel and work, she said.
Another female passenger arriving from Japan at about 12:20am said there were no airport officials available to explain the situation to passengers waiting for their baggage.
She said many passengers, including foreign tourists, were left waiting without knowing when their luggage would arrive.
After more than two hours, passengers were reportedly told that they could either wait another three to five hours or report their missing baggage and leave the airport before collecting it later.
The disruptions have affected both Thai and foreign passengers, prompting calls for better communication as airport authorities and Thai Airways work to increase manpower and equipment and restore baggage-handling services to normal.
The Thai Air Force has deployed personnel to support ground operations at the airport. The deployment followed a request from Thai Airways International.
Thai Airways said on Monday that it had been allocating additional personnel over the past two days to increase its capacity to handle the baggage backlog. Baggage left behind over the past two days and already registered with the company would be progressively delivered to passengers starting Monday afternoon.
Passengers who have registered their baggage details through the airline’s QR code system can check the status by calling 02-134-5373-74 for domestic flights or 02-134-5466-68 for international flights.
Passengers collecting their baggage themselves can contact the Baggage Service Office on the second floor, in front of the domestic passenger exit, between 6:30am and 11:30pm, at 02-134-5373-74.
Thai Airways said staff would contact passengers by phone or email to confirm their details before arranging baggage deliveries.
