Otopeni airport overflowing with unclaimed, lost baggage

Complaints regarding lost or delayed luggage began to mount with the start of the summer holiday season in Europe. Airports and airlines across the old continent face a severe lack of personnel, especially in the baggage-handling area.

Like numerous airports worldwide, the one in the Romanian capital (the Otopeni airport) is seeing dozens of luggage crowding its arrivals terminal, according to Digi24.

Representatives of Edinburgh airport in the UK have said that chaos regarding baggage could last for months. Short on handlers, the airport has gathered a hoard of hundreds of items of luggage. To remedy the situation, airport officials have set up a “baggage repatriation” center, according to The Times.

Earlier this month, the US-based Delta Airlines sent a plane to rescue a thousand pieces of luggage stranded in London’s Heathrow airport. The airport has been among those hit hardest by the luggage crisis.

German vacationers were told by the head of the Frankfurt airport to use colorful luggage in order to ease the job of baggage handlers. Unlike black luggage, colorful ones are easier to identify.

Although the problems at Otopeni airport are not as severe, the global trend regarding lost luggage is not encouraging. The global rate of mishandled baggage spiked by 24% to 4.35 bags per thousand passengers in 2021 as the industry began its recovery from the pandemic, according to the SITA Baggage IT Insights 2022. In some airports, the number of mishandled luggage increased tenfold.

Those who’ve been left without their luggage have to file a Property Irregularity Report describing their baggage in terms of brand, color, weight, and so on, and wait for it to be identified.

(Photo source: Maurizio Milanesio |