Passengers on Kenya Airways (KQ) have continued to have difficulties transiting through European airports due to sluggish luggage processing, with the company blaming the delays on a staff shortage.

The airline announced yesterday that it was experiencing "severe delays in processing bags from our European stations," leading travelers to arrive at their destinations ahead of their luggage.

"The delays are caused by a labor shortage and/or strikes." As a result, luggage is not being processed in time to reach flights before they depart, resulting in an undesirable situation. This has impacted most airlines, including the transfer of luggage from other airlines to KQ," said KQ in a statement.

The airline stated that it was working with affected airports to guarantee that customers' belongings were either loaded onto the next available flight or sent to them using courier services.

"Once the suitcases reach the destination airport, our team will organize delivery using a courier service to the addresses specified," the carrier noted. Since last week, hundreds of KQ travelers have been inconvenienced, with Heathrow airport reporting the most baggage system malfunctions. The hiccup has been blamed for a massive pile-up of luggage at the airport's Terminal 2 since last Friday.

Some passengers reported two-hour queues at the baggage reclaim facility in London, while others were left without luggage and had to fly without them.

This confusion has impacted Kenya Airways and other airlines serving critical routes in Europe, causing thousands of travelers to become more frustrated. Since the start of the high summer travel season, UK airports have been struck by a series of travel disruptions due to a severe labor shortage, resulting in the cancellation of hundreds of flights. According to critics, the UK transport industry failed to plan for an increase in passenger traffic following two years of interruption owing to the Covid-19 outbreak.

Some British airlines, such as TUI and EasyJet, have even gone so far as to cancel dozens of flights per week to improve customer service and reliability on the remaining routes. EasyJet has even removed certain airplane seats to reduce crew sizes.

However, the airport pandemonium is not limited to the United Kingdom. Over the last week, turmoil has been experienced at some European airports such as Dublin, Ireland, and Schiphol, Amsterdam, as people have begun to go overseas, owing to a scarcity of bag handlers, security, and airline workers, which has resulted in long lines, missed flights, and irate passengers.