Short-staffed Australian airports in chaos as flights depart without any luggage

As the Easter travel crush peaked at Australian airports, unions warned that the aviation industry is now unable to cope with pre-covid-like levels of travel demand.

While unloaded baggage and long lines affected travellers across the country on Thursday, unions have claimed that female cleaners were sent in to clean male toilets while travellers were using them, and male cleaners were sent in to clean female toilets.

The pressures of the holiday period, Covid isolation orders, and a workforce cut and outsourcing during the Pandemic have led to chaotic scenes at airports across the country, just as they record hundreds of thousands of travellers in what will be their busiest periods since before the Pandemic.

Some Qantas flights have been forced to leave without passengers due to the short-staffing of baggage handlers who are employed by Swissport.

In recent days, flights have left with half of the checked-in luggage, which allows them to leave with less delay.

Irate passengers who appeared to be on flights affected by shortages of baggage handler have been told they will receive their luggage in the coming days.

An airport source who is not authorized to speak to the media told Guardian Australia that on one occasion in recent days, just 87 of the 150 bags checked on a flight were loaded on to the plane.

Qantas contracts to provide its baggage handlers are contributing to network-wide disruptions at several airports because there are not enough of them.

Planes have taken off with no food and have waited up to an hour on the tarmac for food deliveries, according to a source.

Workers are not being paid enough to work this much, and are leaving the baggage handling companies. The source said that this is not about Covid cases and workers isolating.

The source claimed that baggage handler staffing for Qantas flights had become so dire in recent days that employees were going to be whipped so they wouldn't show up.

Since Qantas outsourcing these jobs, flight demand has not been the same as before. It has been busy since last week. The source said that the baggage handling companies are running with no fat.

The decision to outsourcing baggage handling roles at airports was linked to the press conference held by the Transport Workers Union national secretary.

There are 2,000 workers who are willing and able to come back to work, but Qantas is not putting them back on.

A Qantas spokesman told Guardian Australia that the union's claims are not true.

She said that between 20% and 50% of employees in some areas have been unable to work due to Covid-related staff shortages, and that these issues are happening across many areas of the aviation industry, including in other airlines, in airport security screening and in other countries.

The busiest day at the airport since March 2020 was set to be Thursday with 82,000 travellers passing through its domestic terminals.

Air transport service staff, including security personnel at airports, are now recognised as critical workers in New South Wales and Victoria, which means they are exempt from the requirement to isolation for seven days if they are close to a case.

The relaxation of the isolation rule has not alleviated all issues. At times the security checkpoint lanes are not open.

The travellers arrived at the airport in the hours before the doors opened. Two hours before the curfew lifts, travellers reported queueing outside some domestic departure halls.

Over the Easter period, 76,000 passengers a day are expected to pass through the airport, while almost 60,000 passengers passed through the airport on Thursday.

The United Workers Union said that the company contracted by the airport was asking female cleaners to clean male bathroom without closing them to travellers.

In the past, female members of the UWU have been asked to clean male bathroom and have reported assaults.

The toilets should be closed if Securecorp can't roster enough workers to complete their work safely. He said that if the airport doesn't like the toilets being closed, they need to take that up with the contractor, not force people to put their safety at risk.

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Guardian Australia contacted the airport, but was referred to the cleaning contractor.