Holidaymakers are left waiting for hours at Stansted airport after baggage overload 

Holidaymakers have had to wait hours for their baggage at London Stansted after thunderstorms over Europe delayed flights and caused a baggage overload.  

Passengers were having to wait an hour for their bags as a number of flights made off-schedule landings after being delayed by the bad weather, the airport said.

This heaped pressure on handlers who were having to process the extra bags alongside the luggage from scheduled arrivals.

Holidaymakers were having to wait an hour for their bags as a number of flights made off-schedule landings after being delayed by the bad weather, the airport said

It is due to flights landing ‘off-schedule’ because of the weather, leading to short-staffed Swissport baggage handlers being unable to cope

A Stansted Airport spokesman said heavy rain on the airfield was also affecting the unloading of planes.

The spokesman said: ‘It’s resulted in a number of aircraft coming in delayed which has had a knock-on effect on the baggage handling delivery times for a number of our passengers.’

Photographs posted on social media captured crowds of people packed into the airport’s baggage reclaim area as they waited for their bags to join them.

The spokesman did not say how many flights or passengers had been affected.

He added that the airport was expecting the baggage system to be operating as normal soon. 

It comes after hundreds of angry passengers from different flights were left queuing for four hours at Manchester Airport as their bags failed to appear over the weekend.

Furious passengers described Manchester Airport as an ‘absolute shambles’ after hundreds were left waiting four hours to collect their bags. 

Photos posted on social media showed crowds of people packed into the airport’s baggage reclaim area as they waited for their bags to join them

Passengers pictured seek information from the Ryanair baggage enquiries desk at the airport

The spokesman did not say how many flights or passengers had been affected. He added that the airport was expecting the baggage system to be operating as normal soon

Holidaymakers arriving home to Terminal 3 said they were forced to sleep on the floor as they waited for their bags while others said they abandoned their luggage and went back yesterday.

The airport apologised for the late-night delays while Ryanair said the terminal had to be evacuated after a fire alarm. 

A Manchester Airport spokesman said: ‘We are aware that some passengers experienced long waiting times to receive their baggage during the night.

‘We have been in contact with Swissport, the handling agent responsible, and we will be carrying out a full investigation. We’d like to apologise for any inconvenience caused to passengers.’

Swissport has yet to comment while Ryanair said the delays occurred ‘because of the need to rescreen through airport security all affected passengers’.