Qantas: One in ten bags are lost on domestic flights at Sydney airport, workers claim

A worker at an outsourcing firm Qantas has registered to replace Aussie staff has claimed the national carrier lost ‘one in 10’ baggage bags – although the company vehemently denies that figure.

The ‘spirit of Australia’ was brought to justice by the Transport Workers Union in late 2020 when it was ruled that the airline had illegally fired nearly 2,000 baggage handlers, cleaners and ground staff before shifting their jobs to foreign-owned providers including Swissport.

The Swiss company has since been forced to seek employment firms, some of which are not aviation-specific, to manage worker shortages for Qantas and Jetstar flights – a decision that infuriated company staff who accused them of being poorly trained and up to 10 percent of all misplaced luggage.

“I would tell everyone, don’t check-in bags when you fly with Qantas now, or even better if you can avoid it, don’t fly Qantas at all,” an anonymous Swissport worker told The Guardian.

A Swissport baggage clerk who works at Sydney Airport said one in 10 bags is currently lost by workers with unskilled labor filling the staff shortage.

The worker claims 25 percent of the current workforce comes from recruiting companies, many of whom have never worked in an aviation environment in the past.

They believe workers are less motivated, take shortcuts and do worse jobs, insisting thousands of items are lost, mislabeled and transferred to the wrong carousels.

‘Currently there are about 10 carts every day that don’t work,’ said a Swissport employee.

The hired worker had failed to properly scan the bag, the employee said, which could have resulted in incorrect weight distribution for the plane and an inability to track where the baggage was.

“They also dropped transfer bags on the arrival carousels, which was the reason the bags weren’t carried on flights with passengers,” they said.

A Qantas spokesman vehemently denied the worker’s account.

‘The story in the Guardian is completely inaccurate. The claim that one in ten bags has been mishandled is false.

‘The baggage mishandling rate across the Qantas network over the past four weeks has been around one percent and our team is working hard to lower this figure further.’

The worker said that the wrong bag was sent to the arrival carousel rather than their transfer flight

Swissport has also introduced a series of measures to attract prospective workers, including a $50 bonus per day just for coming to work.

They are also demanding that new workers in other major cities spend their first months at companies working from Sydney Airport, a move needed to remedy extensive delays and staff shortages.

The company said it was a ‘great opportunity to experience Sydney’ and offered to pay the hotel for all new hires.

The Swissport worker took aim at CEO Alan Joyce, saying his workers were extremely ‘frustrated’ to see Qantas bosses on TV ‘show off this shiny new flight’ – a reference to the airline’s new one-stop long haul flights.

The worker claims 25 percent of the current workforce is from recruiting firms, many of whom have never worked in aviation settings in the past.

Joyce discussed staff shortages during an interview with 2GB Radio host Ben Fordham, in which he admitted the company failed over the long Easter weekend but returned to pre-Covid operating levels.

“It’s booming right now but we had two years of people being locked up and now people want to travel. Domestic levels are back to pre-Covid levels or above,” he said.

‘Before Covid everything was in perfect balance, it went smoothly. What we saw over Easter was not the airline industry’s best time. Some parts of the system are not working well, we are seeing queues at airports, higher sick leave rates and in some cases up to 50 per cent of people taking sick leave.

‘There has been a huge improvement and we now think the call center was improved and better before Covid.’

‘Currently there are about 10 carts every day that don’t work,’ says Swissport . employee

The statement contrasts with data from the Department of Transport which said Qantas was well below its normal performance average in May.

Last year, the national average for on-time arrivals for Australian airlines was 83.8 per cent, but in 2022 Qantas sees only 61.9 per cent arriving on time.

In comparison, Virgin Australia recorded 65.7 per cent of on-time arrivals.

It also saw only 62.7 percent of flights depart on time, while recording the highest cancellation percentage at 7.6 percent. Virgin Australia saw 5.1 per cent of its flights cancelled.

Qantas said in a statement “resources continue to be a challenge” for the entire industry but its airport operations have “improved significantly” since the Easter long weekend.

“While much remains to be done to improve our operational performance, the rate of baggage mishandling has increased in recent months,” an airline spokesperson said.

Swissport says they are able to ‘provide a safe and reliable cost-effective service’ because of their decades of experience working with Qantas.

“The rapid rebound in travel demand has put pressure on resources across the aviation sector, both in Australia and around the world,” a spokeswoman said.

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