BA apologises for Heathrow chaos after passengers sent home without luggage

Chaos reigned at London’s Heathrow Airport as long delays forced passengers to leave the terminal without their luggage.

Travellers on Sunday described staff shortages, missing baggage and passengers waiting for hours on the airport floor just days before Christmas.

After hours of waiting, people were advised to head home and wait for a courier to bring their bags, or book a hotel and claim the money back later from British Airways, which uses Heathrow as a hub.

The airline apologised to customers for the chaos, which added to frustration for winter holidaymakers after restrictions linked to the spread of the Omicron variant forced some to cancel their plans.

British Airways said the problems were caused by “operational constraints”, which are understood to have included weather disruption and staff sickness. Britain has piled up record numbers of Covid-19 infections in recent days, forcing many people into isolation.

“Our teams are working extremely hard to reunite customers with their baggage as quickly as possible,” a British Airways spokesman said. Heathrow said the baggage problems were a matter for the airline.

One passenger, biomedical science student Jack Lawrence, was locked out of his home for 24 hours and counting after the luggage containing his keys failed to arrive.

He was forced to call off his trip to Zurich, Switzerland, after his flight was cancelled just 10 minutes before it was due to begin boarding.

“It was utter chaos,” Mr Lawrence told The National on Monday. “There were five members of staff on duty at baggage reclaim to deal with hundreds of passengers.

“We were informed BA had run out of hotel rooms in the London area so people would need to find their own accommodations and seek reimbursement at a later date.

“PA announcements were made encouraging people to leave for the night and that their bags would be couriered to them when found. Mine is still missing almost 24 hours later - with no updates on its status.”

Some people waited for hours sitting on their luggage, baggage trolleys or the floor, he said, with a trolley of snacks eventually brought out for those waiting.

Passengers saw suitcases piled up near the baggage carousel. Photo: Jack Lawrence

Other passengers expressed frustration over a lack of information over the long delays.

Joanne Westeng said she had waited three hours for her elderly mother to arrive from a domestic flight. There was “zero information from BA and complete lack of personnel to ask” in the arrivals area, she said.

Another passenger, Natalia Kaliada, said people had been strongly advised to leave without their baggage.

She said she left the airport after almost three hours of waiting and was told to fill in an online form with British Airways.

Heathrow is the busiest airport in the UK, but passenger numbers slumped during the pandemic.

Airport chief executive John Holland-Kaye said this month that travel would not return to normal until all coronavirus-related checks were scrapped.

Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”

UAE tour of the Netherlands

UAE squad: Rohan Mustafa (captain), Shaiman Anwar, Ghulam Shabber, Mohammed Qasim, Rameez Shahzad, Mohammed Usman, Adnan Mufti, Chirag Suri, Ahmed Raza, Imran Haider, Mohammed Naveed, Amjad Javed, Zahoor Khan, Qadeer Ahmed
Fixtures:
Monday, 1st 50-over match
Wednesday, 2nd 50-over match
Thursday, 3rd 50-over match