Edinburgh Airport (EDI) has said it is closing its customer helpline phone numbers after noticing a rise in verbal abuse against service agents. Unfortunately, several angry customers have meted out abusive language while talking to the airport’s staff over lost luggage in recent weeks.

An Edinburgh spokesperson told Simple Flying,

“Our customer support team are currently seeing a large volume of queries, around 90 per cent of which are related to the baggage process which is under the control of airlines and handling agents, not the airport. Despite this our teams have been helping by signposting passengers to the relevant partners where more information can be provided. Unfortunately we have seen a rise in the amount of abuse our teams are facing from passengers and although we appreciate the frustration they are facing, it is not acceptable and there is no excuse for abuse.”

Indeed, frustration and anger among passengers who have lost their luggage are completely understandable. However, verbally abusing professionals doing their job is never the right thing to do.

Edinburgh is one of many airports in the UK battling a severe staffing crisis, which has resulted in hundreds of people losing their bags. Just last month, we saw thousands of bags piled up at London’s Heathrow Airport (LHR) as several passengers were forced to leave the airport after waiting for hours to get their bags.

On July 6th, the BBC reported there were hundreds of bags stored in a warehouse at Edinburgh Airport as ground handling companies work through the massive backlog of customer complaints. Several stranded passengers had no option left but to look through the clutter themselves in an attempt to find their bags. The short-staffing at various airports has caused great inconvenience to thousands of passengers so far. A spokesperson said customer helpline agents had been inundated with lost baggage complaints in recent weeks, and with that, the level of verbal abuse has also significantly increased. Last week, Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) also urged passengers to be kinder towards airport staff. The MSPs acted after multiple reports emerged of passengers being rude to and insulting while talking to airport agents.

How can passengers get their bags back?

Of course, airlines hire ground handling agencies to take care of all their baggage transfer needs. More specifically, ground handling companies Swissport, Menzies Aviation, and WFS are all active at EDI. To help passengers in any way it can, Edinburgh Airport was using its customer helplines to direct stranded passengers to the right contact point. The airport management has released a list of all airlines with their respective contracted baggage handlers; 

EDI said passengers can still get in touch with customer service representatives from the airport via the official email or using the chatbot feature on the website. In addition to protecting employees from abuse, suspending phone lines will also allow them to work on the existing backlog of airport queries.

 

Article available on SimpleFlying.com