Luggage chaos at Europe’s busiest airport grew so bad that some airline crews were reportedly told not to check bags

Passengers at London Heathrow Airport. 

Some flight crews have been advised not to check bags amid a system fault at Europe’s busiest airport, aviation news site Paddle Your Own Kanoo reported.

London Heathrow is also the world’s second-busiest airport for international flights, behind Dubai, according to travel data provider OAG. On Wednesday, Heathrow announced that it’s expecting its busiest-ever December after last month’s 6.5 million passengers broke records for November travel.

Responding to customers who reported luggage troubles on Monday and Tuesday, British Airways’ X account said the airline faced “baggage disruption” due to issues at Heathrow.

In another post, it said it was “unable to load a number of bags onto flights” on Monday “due to a fault with London Heathrow Airport’s baggage system, which was out of our control.”

Unfortunately, we faced baggage disruption over the last few days due to issues with the baggage belts and equipment at London Heathrow. Our Baggage team are working hard to get all delayed bags back to your customers as quickly as possible. You should have an update soon. Demi

— British Airways (@British_Airways) December 10, 2024

PYOK reported that British Airways also told pilots and cabin crew not to check luggage due to the fault at Terminal 5.

It added that BA told crews the risk of reaching their destination without their bags was too high, and that they should pack essential uniform items and spare clothes in their carry-ons.

The report also said that, in an internal update on Tuesday, Heathrow Airport said that it was still working on “what can be done” to fix the fault.

B-17understands that as of Wednesday morning, British Airways passengers were no longer facing baggage issues.

British Airways did not comment when contacted by B-17 London Heathrow Airport did not immediately respond to a request for comment.