Short-staffed Australian airports in chaos as flights depart without any luggage

Baggage handlers have been so short-staffed that entire flights have departed without luggage as the Easter travel crush peaked at Australian airports, with unions warning the pandemic-depleted aviation industry is now structurally incapable of coping with pre-Covid-like levels of travel demand.

While unloaded baggage and long queues affected travellers across the country on Thursday, unions have claimed that in Brisbane, so few service workers were available that female cleaners were sent in to clean male toilets while travellers were using them, and male cleaners into bathrooms with female patrons.

The pressures of the holiday period, Covid isolation orders, and a workforce cut and outsourced during the pandemic has led to chaotic scenes at airports across the country, just as they record hundreds of thousands of travellers in what will be their busiest periods since before the pandemic.

At other instances in recent days, flights have left with half of the checked-in luggage, which allows the flights to depart with less delay.

Irate passengers who appeared to be on flights affected by shortages of baggage handlers have been told they will receive their luggage in coming days.

At times, just two baggage handlers have been available to unload a Boeing 737, and staff shortages within the companies that Qantas contracts to provide its baggage handlers are contributing to network-wide disruptions at several airports.

The source said catering deliveries have also been plagued with issues, and planes have waited up to an hour on the tarmac for food deliveries and have also taken off on medium-haul flights with no food.

However the relaxation of the isolation rule has not eased all issues. At times, only a fraction of the security checkpoint lanes have been open.

Melbourne airport is set to handle 76,000 passengers a day over the Easter period, while almost 60,000 passengers were believed to have passed through Brisbane airport on Thursday.

At Brisbane airport, the United Workers Union said that so few cleaning staff were available that Securecorp, the company contracted by the airport, was asking female cleaners to clean male bathrooms without closing them to travellers.

Guardian Australia contacted Brisbane airport, but a spokesperson referred questions to the cleaning contractor, Securecorp.