Chaos reigns for 10,000 passengers at Gran Canaria airport without luggage

10,000 passengers from 84 flights (42 outbound and 42 inbound) suffered the consequences of the first day of the baggage handlers strike at Gran Canaria’s Gando airport on Saturday, as Groundforce, who service 20 airlines most of them international, saw their staff on strike called by the unions at the handling company.

Passengers from the UK, France, Germany, Portugal, Austria and Norway, among other countries, suffered delays of more than an hour in boarding, delays of up to almost three hours in the departure of their flight, and waits of 40 minutes to disembark after landing.

In addition, in the case of travellers on 36 flights (18 outbound and 18 inbound), when the airport was at its busiest, the companies that were covering the work opted not to open the holds of the planes in order not to generate further delays as they couldn’t cope with the volume of arrivals and luggage.

This meant that the suitcases of those who were leaving the island to return home to their own countries were left in Gran Canaria, and those of passengers who arrived on the island were left on the plane, and today many still have not received their belongings.

It is estimated that there are still more than 5,000 suitcases accumulated in Gando airport waiting for the airlines to put on special flights in the next few days to take the luggage to their owners and bring those of the tourists who have just arrived on the island.

According to the unions, the strike will be repeated for the next two weeks on Wednesdays and Saturdays, until September 19^th, however, if no resolution is in place by then it will continue indefinitely.

The vice president of the Federation of Hospitality and Tourism Entrepreneurs of Las Palmas (FEHT), Tom Smulders, warned of the risk yesterday that a strike like this presents at a time when we are "At the beginning of the recovery of international tourism”, saying that this will be a deterrent for visitors to the island and could set us back months at a time when the epidemiological data for the Canaries is favourable again for tourism.

In this sense, he points out that the Nordic tour operators have already warned him that "they are studying the situation" and could reschedule the flights they have this week. This Wednesday they have four flights scheduled to Gran Canaria.

The seriousness of the situation has led FEHT to request the intervention of the Canary Islands Government and the Gran Canaria Cabildo to end a strike that, in his words, "threatens the sector and would be a huge blow for airlines, tour operators and tourism of the island.”

In the next 15 days, on Wednesdays and Saturdays, almost 40,000 passengers are expected from airlines that Groundforce handles at the Gran Canaria airport, most of them are international flights from TUI, Jet2, Easyjet, Transavia, Air France, Austria Airlines, TAP, Condor, Air Europa and SAS, which were some of the airlines affected by the delays on Saturday.