Thai Airways faced operational issues at Bangkok Airport due to flooding. Over 10,000 bags were left behind, but the airline has pledged to deliver the remaining bags.
As I covered frequently over the past week, Thai Airways faced many operational issues at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport due to flooding in Bangkok, and as a result, more than 10,000 bags were left behind at BKK, mostly from incoming flights.
THAI promised to clear these bags as soon as possible; first, they gave a 72-hour deadline, but now it’s a week later, and there are still ~ 1,092 bags left, which the airline promised to deliver by the end of today.
In all fairness, considering they had over 10,000 pieces of baggage left at Bangkok Airport, I’m surprised they managed to clear these within a 7-9 day period if the reported numbers are accurate.
Thai Airways expects to return the remaining 1,092 delayed bags at Suvarnabhumi Airport to passengers by Sunday, October 4, according to an airline update issued at 10pm on October 3.
The Thai Airways baggage backlog began on September 26, when flooding prevented some ground-handling employees from reaching work. Breakdowns involving baggage transport vehicles compounded the staffing shortage, leaving arriving passengers waiting for luggage, delaying some departing flights and preventing bags from reaching their destinations on schedule.
The Transport Ministry said on September 26 that flooding had not directly affected operations at Suvarnabhumi or Don Mueang airports, although journeys to the airports were disrupted. Measures were introduced to assist affected passengers.
Thai Airways’ October 3 update showed that the baggage backlog remained unresolved after the Transport Ministry’s October 2 clearance deadline.
Chai Eamsiri, speaking as Thai Airways’ chief executive on September 29, said about 5,000 bags from the airline’s flights remained at Suvarnabhumi and set a target of clearing them within 72 hours. The baggage backlog crisis led to Chai being suspended from duty on Friday, October 2.
Thai Airways also faced flight disruptions, with a further eight cancellations reported on September 29 after 34 flights were delayed on September 28. …
More than 10,000 bags had accumulated between September 26 and 29. His September 30 update reported that about 1,800 bags had been returned to passengers, with around 8,000 still outstanding.
Thai Airways said on September 30 that around 80–90% of its ground staff had returned to work. The airline was accelerating baggage clearance with personnel and resources supplied by relevant agencies. …
Suvarnabhumi Airport investigated passenger complaints about delayed flights and lengthy baggage waits on September 27, then coordinated with Thai Airways to increase ground staffing, accelerate repairs to faulty baggage vehicles and secure replacement equipment.
Suvarnabhumi Airport also coordinated baggage-status updates on display screens and announcements in baggage-claim areas, with staff assigned to assist passengers.
Thai Airways asked passengers still waiting for luggage to complete delayed-baggage forms so the airline could track their bags and arrange delivery. Passengers were also able to contact the Lost and Found centre at Suvarnabhumi. …
I personally know people who were NOT able to get in touch with the Thai Airways baggage counter through the hotline, and I advised them to either use the online form or take a taxi to the airport and deal with the matter in person.
Trying to get things surrounding lost baggage resolved over the phone makes very little sense in most cases, especially when there isn’t a proper PIR filed with the airline.
Thai Military Deploys to Suvarnabhumi Airport To Assist Thai Airways With Baggage Backlog
Thai asked passengers whose baggage was missing to fill in data into a Microsoft Cloud webform in order to record details and then they had to wait several days for the bags to show up.
The problem with this is liability and insurance. Typically, both the airline and insurance require a properly filed baggage irregularity report in order to claim any damages under the Montreal Convention.
I’m curious to see if THAI is actually going to compensate passengers properly for the impacts resulting from loss and delay of these 10,000 bags.
Thai Airways CEO Fired Over Operational Meltdown At Bangkok-Suvarnabhumi Airport
This is all political theater, of course. The CEO is on the way out next year, and now influential people want to position a more opportune candidate for future confirmation as Chief Executive.
I don’t blame the CEO for what happened with the TG BKK operations last week. When a large part of your workforce suddenly doesn’t show up, and you still operate as normal, these things happen. The alternative would have been to cancel all flights until the situation had stabilized.
Remember when British Airways had the Heathrow T5 meltdown in 2008, and tens of thousands of bags were impacted? They were later sent to a sorting facility in Italy until British Airways decided that reconciling them was too costly and cumbersome. Eventually, many of these bags were incinerated, and passengers received only the highly limited compensation under the Montreal Convention.
Thai Airways has pledged to clear the last remaining 1,092 bags left over from last weekend’s operations meltdown by tonight, Sunday, October 4th.
Whether that comes to fruition remains to be seen; many passengers, undoubtedly tourists, have since moved on from Bangkok and are now at a different destination.
Affected passengers should compile their damages, such as replacement purchases, taxi rides, and phone calls, and claim these expenses with THAI and their travel insurance. If any of our readers encounter issues with that, please email us so we can cover it.