A baggage handler at one of Europe's busiest airports said they were too 'petrified' to go on vacation because of ongoing travel disruption

People wait in long queues for security at Heathrow Airport on June 1.

Carl Court/Getty Images.

• A baggage handler told the BBC they were afraid to travel in case the airline lost their bags.
• He criticized the travel chaos and said it's "like a really bad snow day, but three months of it."
• There have been many reports of lost luggage in recent months.

A baggage handler at one of Europe's busiest airports said they were "petrified" to go on vacation because of travel disruptions.

Speaking anonymously, the baggage handler told the BBC they were afraid to travel in case airlines lost their luggage.

The baggage handler said they would not want to be "transferring now" because the chances of luggage reaching their destination travelers' destination are "very slim."

Baggage handlers are employed by airlines rather than airports, a representative for London Heathrow told Insider. The employee interviewed by the BBC had been based in the UK airport for more than a decade.

They told the BBC they had never seen travel as disrupted as it currently is.

"This is like a really bad snow day, but three months of it," they said. "The school holidays will be worse."

There have been widespread reports of lost luggage in recent months.

Earlier this month, Bloomberg reported that the number of passengers making claims for lost luggage had risen 30% from 2019, according to a European insurance company, Mapfre SA.

A representative for London Heathrow told Insider airlines needed to invest in their ground handlers to fix the luggage backlog. 

They said: "The main constraint on capacity at Heathrow is a lack of airline ground handlers, the people contracted to airlines to provide check-in, load, and offload bags and turnaround aircraft. "

The spokesperson also said they had warned some airlines months earlier that this capacity constraint needed to be addressed. 

Earlier this month, Heathrow put in place a limit on daily departing passengers. A "passenger cap" is also in place in other European airports such as Amsterdam, Frankfurt, and London Gatwick.

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