Heathrow bags extra luggage staff

Heathrow Airport is struggling with a baggage backlog, following the security alert at Terminal 4 last week, BBC News reports.

British Airways (BA) has brought in around 100 extra members of staff to help ease the problem, which it claims has come as a result of the recent terror scares at Heathrow and Glasgow Airport as well as bad weather.

However, unions are suggesting the backlog of thousands of bags is a result of staff shortages.

BA has revealed it hopes to have the situation under control by the end of the week and denied the claims that understaffing had caused the problems.

A BA spokesman said: "The majority of delayed bags which are currently at Heathrow are transfer bags, where they have missed their onward flight.

"We have been handling 23,000 transfer bags at Heathrow per day with processes and systems which were designed to handle around 18,000 per day."

Heathrow Airport, which is operated by BAA, is the UK's largest and features a wide selection of airport hotels, airport parking areas and airport lounges.