Baggage handling failures at Birmingham Airport have left hundreds of passengers stranded abroad without their luggage after outbound flights departed with cases left behind. The airport issued an alert at around 05:40 BST on Saturday confirming that the disruption to its baggage systems was continuing, though engineers were said to be working on site to fix the fault as quickly as possible.
One traveller described the scenes at the airport as "absolute chaos" after staff confirmed problems were affecting flights leaving the terminal.
Hayley Chapman, from Northfield, flew out to Turkey with her family on Friday only to discover that no luggage whatsoever had been placed on board the aircraft, with no indication given afterwards of where it might be.
Chapman said she had noticed cases piling up at the airport as a result of trouble with the luggage belt, but staff had reassured her at the time that everything would still make it onto the flight. That reassurance proved unfounded — upon landing in Dalaman, the pilot informed passengers that none of the bags had actually been loaded.
"We have heard nothing about compensation, no communication when our luggage is expected, we've heard nothing about who is liable for it. Is it the airport? Is it TUI? Is it our travel insurance? Who are we meant to go to? We've had nothing from anybody."
"It's just radio silence from the airport, apart from literally telling people 'we've got an issue'."
Rather than beginning their holiday, the family instead spent their first day abroad travelling to a shopping centre in search of essential items to tide them over. Chapman said there was still no clarity on how long the wait for their belongings might last.
"There are families all over the world at the moment with nothing and no idea of what's going on."
"It's really important that Birmingham Airport are held accountable, and sort this out."
Eve Sandle, travelling on the same flight with her mother, said she received a text message from TUI stating that "some of your bags on TOM810 may not have arrived today", along with guidance on what to do next.
"The text couldn't be further from the truth. They knew no cases were on that plane."
"Not a TUI rep to be seen to support in the airport, and hotel reps haven't even been made aware of the issues."
"We are in a foreign county with only the clothes we are standing in."
"I have brought my mum here for a week and it's not quite gone to plan."
How has the disruption affected other travellers?
The problems were not confined to holidaymakers flying with TUI. Simon Leyland, from Barton-under-Needwood, said his bags failed to arrive with him in Rome after he flew from Birmingham with Jet2 on Friday to join a family cruise.
"We were sat there yesterday with no bags, no record of any bags and the cruise line saying 'our coach is going to set off, and if you don't get on it you won't get on the ship'."
"There are 30 other people on our cruise in a similar position."
While the ship called at Messina in Sicily, Leyland said he had managed to trace his luggage as far as Rome using AirTags, discovering that one bag had spent a night at Liverpool's John Lennon Airport while another had been routed through Manchester. He said he now hoped the family would finally be reunited with their belongings when the cruise reaches Corfu next week, but was critical of how the situation had been handled.
"Things can go wrong, no reasonable person thinks it should always be perfect, but there should be a point where it's like, 'we understand, it's an issue and we'll just over-communicate and we'll tell you where they are'."
Clive Stokes, from Kidderminster, who was flying to Cyprus, acknowledged that some delay at the airport was understandable given the scale of the fault, but said the lack of explanation to passengers was the bigger failing.
"But what the airport didn't do is explain the situation to people."
Stokes said he only learned of the likely problem via an email sent on Friday evening, roughly two hours after his flight had already departed, warning that his baggage might not arrive with him. On landing, he estimated that only around 20 cases had come through for the whole flight.
"I've probably spent between three and four hundred euros today on my credit card just to buy stuff, which, I think, I hope they'll reimburse."
"It's not the end of the earth, but there were people on the flight who were getting married, so they've got wedding dresses missing."
What has Birmingham Airport said about the fault?
Birmingham Airport said that Jet2 had been in contact with all of its passengers affected by the disruption, and that other airlines and partners were also working to reunite travellers with bags that had ended up at the wrong destination.
"We are continuing to experience an issue with our baggage systems which is impacting some outbound luggage."
"Engineers are on site and working to resolve this issue as quickly as possible. Terminal colleagues are also working hard to ensure baggage in terminal is being processed as quickly as possible."
"We expect this to cause inconvenience for some passengers, and we sincerely apologise for this. Those due to travel today, should still arrive at the airport in line with Airline advice."
TUI had been asked to respond to the situation, according to the airport.
Is this linked to problems at other airports?
Some flights normally departing from Bristol Airport are currently being rerouted through Birmingham after a runway defect forced the suspension of services there. That disruption has now stretched into a second day, with reopening pushed back to 08:00 BST amid separate complaints from passengers about poor communication, as detailed in earlier coverage of the Bristol Airport runway closure.
Birmingham Airport has also faced criticism over passenger experience in recent months. In May 2026, travellers reported long security queues over the bank holiday weekend, which the airport attributed to high staff absences, as covered in a report on bank holiday security delays. The latest baggage system failure adds to a pattern of operational strain at the airport during a busy period for summer travel.
Key Facts
- Birmingham Airport confirmed ongoing baggage system issues in an update at 05:40 BST on Saturday.
- Passengers flying to Turkey, Cyprus and Italy reported arriving with no luggage at all.
- Simon Leyland tracked his missing bags to Liverpool John Lennon Airport and Manchester using AirTags before they reached Rome.
- Birmingham Airport said Jet2 had contacted all affected passengers, while other parties worked to return repatriated bags.
- Some Bristol Airport flights are being diverted through Birmingham due to a separate runway defect.
