Cointrin Airport, Geneva
Update 4 January 09:15 Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Baggage handlers at Geneva’s Cointrin Airport will continue Monday the strike they began 2 January, but fewer than 50 employees are expected to be striking and their absence is being covered by crews sent in from Zurich, according to the Tribune de Geneve. Swissport baggage handlers will continue their strike Monday, but Dnata employees who joined them 2 January agreed to go back to work Sunday, after receiving pay increases.
The airport was hectic over the weekend, and while local media said the strike appeared to have a minimal impact, travellers are reporting that the chaos included lost luggage. Vivian, moving to Geneva with her family (see comment below), says “The place was mass confusion. People were sitting on the floors. The place was packed with people. I’m pretty sure they broke fire codes with the number of people in that place. My children slept on the bare floor as we searched for the luggage.” The family had a bag stolen and some luggage, including a bag with the children’s favourite toys, is still missing.
The two companies are members of the SSP and SIP unions. They have been striking for better work and pay conditions: while Swissport employees have had a collective contract with the airport Dnata employees have not, which the two group say creates unfair competition.
Links to other sites: GVA airport, Tribune de Geneve
This work by genevalunch.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported.
News story, GenevaLunch, 4 January 2010.
Filed under: Travel
Tags: airport, baggage handlers, Cointrin, Geneva, strike
January 4th, 2010 at 1:00 am
I can assure you that this strike has affected hundreds, possibly thousands of people, who, like myself were forced to return home early on Saturday morning after waving goodbye to our luggage which was still waiting on the tarmac. Thompson had no idea when we were going to get our bags back. This strike has been blocked by most news briefings, nothing on the BBC. it’s nice to know that they have been given what they want, they can then hold us to ransom next Christmas…
January 4th, 2010 at 8:35 am
Let us know when your bags show up! If it’s any consolation, I can see that the story was carried by Zimbabwe News :-/.
January 4th, 2010 at 9:03 am
My family of six with 10 pieces of luggage arrived in Geneva Saturday morning for the 1st time to live here for the next couple of years due to my husband’s work assignment. Air Canada luggage was coming out of 3 different carousals. They kept on changing the carousals. We spent 3 hours literally walking in circles around the airport looking for our luggage. We had no idea when to stop looking or what was the first step. In over 20 years of crossing the globe (mainly between N. America and Asia), we have never lost a single piece of luggage. Air Canada should have had a representative on the floor to answer questions. The place was mass confusion. People were sitting on the floors. The place was packed with people. I’m pretty sure they broke fire codes with the number of people in that place. My children slept on the bare floor as we searched for the luggage. My 8 year old was looking after 3 baggage carts we had taken but someone stole one from him and he was in tears. It is now Monday morning and they have only located 5 pieces of luggage as of yet. Apparently, the other 5 are still somewhere in Paris. I think thousands of people have been affected–I feel sorry for people on ski holidays trying to ski without their equipment. My kids start school tomorrow and their school uniform pieces are not here. I deliberately checked-in MANY articles I usually carryon because of the recent terrorist threats. My children’s favorite stuffed toys are now lost because I checked them in instead of carrying them on. I usually carry them on but not this time… Switzerland, I hope you’ll be kinder to me in the future but it’s been a VERY unhappy experience moving here from the second we landed. Feel free to contact me if you want to quote me in the press. I’ve been searching and searching for information about this strike and couldn’t find any news articles about it. I’m trying to find out if I will ever see my luggage again. Your article seems to imply that the disturbance was minimal so I should be optimistic. What is happening in Charles de Gaulle though? My bags from Canada were supposed to come direct to Geneva but were sent to Paris making things even more complicated. To add salt to my wounds, my airline told me as we were running to make our connections that our luggage would be transferred as the distance our luggage would travel was actually shorter than the distance we had to walk. Yeah right. Our lovely trip has been spoiled.
January 4th, 2010 at 9:13 am
One of the reasons there was little local news coverage of this is that all the media were taking the long weekend, locally, so there was minimal staffing most places, and same was true for wire services. The airport itself has had nothing on its web site, which I think was a major oversight. My main source of information had to be the unions, who argue – and they seem to have a point – that the airport did not take them seriously. The reason for that is that Switzerland has virtually no strikes, so you’ve walked right into a major exception! I’m pretty sure life here will be kinder to you, and pretty quickly, but it isn’t a nice start. I’ll update the article, since clearly it was more of a luggage mess than those of us who weren’t there heard. For what it’s worth, you chose one of the 2-3 busiest travel days of the year in Europe, and probably the busiest in Switzerland, with back from vacations people combined with skiers. Best wishes for your stay here. You might want to keep an eye on our New to Geneva? Me too! blog, which has a wealth of useful information. And check out our resources pages, too.
January 4th, 2010 at 9:39 am
Thanks for your empathetic reply. It helps to know that someone out there cares! There was a long line-up at the “baggage tracing” office for people lining up to file their lost baggage reports so I know that many people left the airport without their luggage that day. Luggage was spewing out onto the carousals but were not being picked up. Most likely their owners had already left the airport. I have fears that in that chaos, anyone could steal from the carousals. Did the union have on extra security staff to check that people leaving the floor actually were taking their own luggage? Also, what is happening behind the scenes? Is there luggage strewn everywhere–unwatched? Who is securing all this lost luggage?
By chance, we passed by the luggage tracing office and saw the line-up so decided to line-up to see if we could get any practical help. The office people were lovely and told us to file our report and to go home. We didn’t know what to do before that. We’ve no experience with lost luggage and if we hadn’t have passed by the office, we might still be wandering around that zoo! Really, Air Canada should have had onhand a representative on the floor to advise us what was happening. The Swissport info desk did their best to help but they don’t know specifics about each flight. My husband had to translate for a lady in a wheelchair that was freaking out about the fact she couldn’t see her luggage. The only way you found out what was happening was by listening to fellow passengers complaining about the strike. There was no official announcement in English about what was happening and we only heard from fellow passengers. It would have been helpful if there were official announcements given out about what the situation was. Thanks for listening! I’ll write back if and when I get all my luggage back.
January 4th, 2010 at 9:45 am
I flew out of GVA on Saturday. It wasn’t until we began our descent into Manchester that we were informed that no bags had been loaded.
Although some news sources (inc Geneva Tribune) say that the delayed outgoing bags have now been rerouted, “Global Baggage Solutions” can not provide any information other than to say that the strike continues.
Like the other posters I’m surprised by the lack of news coverage in the UK and on the web in general.
January 4th, 2010 at 9:47 am
We’ll check with the airport this morning for an update – not sure how quickly we’ll be able to reach them, though. I’ll post a new article as soon as we have some information. On the bright side, Geneva is a great place to live, so let’s hope you can quickly put this episode behind you.
January 4th, 2010 at 9:50 am
I think we have to write off the lack of coverage to holidays and skeleton crews in media offices. The bulk of the “news” in most media offices is written in advance for Christmas and New Years periods.
January 4th, 2010 at 10:00 am
I empathise with the ground staff employees who wanted better working conditions and therefore chose to take indutrial actions, if in truth it was required. However, I flew from Geneva to Bournemouth on Saturday and was told when we landed that our bags had not been handled onto the aircraft. This in my opinion is appalling. It is fine that the airport staff can strike, but they must have pre-warned the airlines, who should have therefore put in precautions. Easyjet told us when we landed that even the pilot did not know that the luggage was missing from the plane and I cannot see this as plausible as they are able to tell if the plane is too heavy before take off so they can readjust. Surely someone must have known and therefore someone failed in their responsibility to ensure our baggage was handled onto the plane.
January 4th, 2010 at 1:59 pm
I travel regularly through Geneva airport and tend to go skiing over the festive season each year. In all my years of travelling I have never seen Geneva that bad and the best part was that there was no prior warning. It would seem that Easyjet was targeted as it was the only airline with queues stretching the length of the airport. In addition the lack of working self check-in machines did not help the situation. A quick guess and I reckon 50% were not working – this on one of the busiest travelling weekends with skiers as confirmed by the Easyjet Captain just before take off. Friends of mine were flying to a different airport and although delayed by 3 hours before taking off at least they arrived with their baggage.
Geneva airport authority no doubt broke every health and safety rule in the book not to mention the check in staff that didn’t even bother to ask the standard security questions at check in.
It is a shame that a country such as Switzerland where things usually go like clockwork and in particular Geneva airport should be brought to it’s knees by striking workers and unions. It would seem that no passengers are immune from strikes and there I was thanking my lucky stars that I did not fly with BA this time round… with hindsight I wonder if cheaper was indeed smarter.
Lets hope the striking staff return to work and start processing the backlog so that we can all get on with our day jobs.
January 4th, 2010 at 2:29 pm
When we arrived at the airport on Saturday we were advised that there was industrial action by the baggage handlers. Given this it was extremely frustrating to be told as we were boarding that no bags were on board. I cant help thinking it would have been far less stressful to have taken our own bags out to the plane – at least that way not only would we have known where the bags are but we would have received them at the other end. Might make the baggage handlers think twice about holding holiday makers to ransom…..?
January 4th, 2010 at 2:41 pm
We flew back from geneva to manchester on Saturday and were actually informed by the pilot not to worry about the bags on the tarmac as our stuff was on, and didnt find out it wasnt until the empty carousel. GBS didn’t give us copies of the forms we handed in therefore making insurance claims difficult if needed.
We should have been told at the check in that the bags may not come back so that essentials could have been put into hand luggage.
The recorded message on the GBS line is useless at best, there should be an operator to speak to, all it is saying now is ‘still no bags anywhere’ basically.
The inghams site states the gatwick flights with monarch have had the bags sent over, and thomson have sent a plane to get the manchester bags (something tells me it may take more than just one plane!).
Also, travel insurance only covers £1500 for lost baggage, which for most peoples ski equipment and clothing is nowhere near how much it would be to replace.
Hopefully things will start moving soon and we will be kept updated by GBS but i severely doubt it.
January 4th, 2010 at 5:20 pm
Having queued last Saturday at Cointrin for 40 mins at the bag drop followed by one and a half hours at security, my plane to Bournemouth was delayed by more tham two hours. My relief at landing in the UK was shortlived when we were told that our baggage was still in Geneva. If only I had known before take-off I would have been able to retrieve some of my warm clothes with which to return to a freezing UK. I could find nothing about the strike of the baggage handlers in the internet and it was not on the news here. I still have no idea if I will ever be reunited with my belongings as the number given to me at the airport for enquiries in constantly on answerphone. I’m fed up and cold!
January 4th, 2010 at 7:20 pm
We flew back from Geneva on Saturday, initally we though everything seemed okay. We understood that there was minimum disruption and that some bags were not leaving the airport at the time of checking in and getting on the plane. It wasn’t until the pilot advised us all once we were all sat on the plane that there was no chance that our luggage would be arriving back with us. If we had known this before chcking in, there were certain items that we would have retrieved from our luggage and taken as carry on instead.
We have spoken to GBS today, who seem to know nothing about what should be happening, they simply advise that we should speak to Thomson. Thomson say we need to speak to the baggage handlers in Geneva.
THEY ARE ON STRIKE!!!
We even asked if our buggy, which we carried to the steps of the plane ourselves would be put on the plane that it was stood right next to. Yes was the answer from the Plane Steward. No was the answer when we were back at Gatwick.
It was a complete and utter shambles. No Thomson representative was at Gatwick to help. Nobody at GBS knew anything about it and to top it all, even after today, being a normal working day in the world, still nobody seems to know anything about what is happening.
We live in a world where I can log onto UPS, see a parcel coming in from China at anytime of the day, and yet 6 pieces of baggage, that we believe may be in Geneva, but nobody is sure, cannot be found or even traced yet!
SOMEBODY HELP!!!!
January 4th, 2010 at 8:22 pm
Just spoken to T1 at Manchester and a really helpful lady informed me that at 16.00 today a ‘bag retrieval flight’ with no passengers landed at Manchester from Geneva. So looks like chappy from Geneva has kept his promise – whether it’s any of our bags, who knows. But finger’s crossed the Thomson customers at least may hear something by tomorrow!
But I agree with previous comments, we too would quite happily have loaded our bags ourselves. What a ridiculous state of affairs.
January 4th, 2010 at 9:33 pm
We were on the same flight as Laura, by the sounds of it as I distinctly remember the pilot making exactly the same comment.
Having lost my ski kit on my last ski hol & only just replacing it, you can imagine how cross I am! From experience GBS & the holiday companies will be completely hopeless over the whole situation & you’ll learn nothing. Just keep your fingers crossed that your bags turn up.
However I question whether there has been any contravening of laws on the airline’s part due to deliberately witholding information and providing misinformation.
if anyone knows please let us know. If our bags don’t turn up we are thinking of sueing the airline. If you want to join us in this let me know. The more the merrier!
January 4th, 2010 at 10:08 pm
We also made the horrendous trip from Geneva to Gatwick on Thomson airlines. After getting up at 5am to make our way from the french alps to Geneva airport, we were met with chaotic check in lines, and people manically dragging all of their luggage around. Arguments about people pushing in, were breaking out, left right and centre. We were NOT told a thing about the strike, and only noticed a flyer on the check in desk and finally a very weak and underrated announcement came over the speaker (about an hour later), to apologise for the slow check-in, which was due to the luggage handler striker. There was absolutely no mention of the possibility of luggage not showing up at our destination. Had we been advised (even warned of the possibility), we could have taken out medication, warm clothes and my glasses – a few essentials. We’ve been travelling around Europe for the last 5 years, around 10 times a year and not once have we experienced anything like this, or (touch wood) lost any luggage. So apart from the lack of communication at the airport, the airline also played a very very poor role in this mess. We were delayed (like everyone else), then when we finally got on the Thomson flight (hours later). The pilot basically blamed the luggage handlers and said it was ‘out of their control’. This may be the case, but what was in their control was the mess to follow!! They knew our luggage had not been loaded and their strategy is obviously not to disclose any information that may upset passengers during the flight (why put their staff under pressure, when they can get away with it), when we landed the message was still very vague ‘Not all the luggage was loaded and there will be people waiting to meet you when you get off the flight’. So I thought, excellent, we should be ok……silly me!! We went through security and awaited our carousel number to appear on screen. ‘Waiting’ was all that appeared…..eventually we gathered nothing had made it on the flight. BUT NO WHERE could we see anyone waiting to give us information. Finally, we made our way to the baggage reclaim area, to find a lot of people filling in yellow forms. There was one man handing out forms, and this was the extent of this job – handing out forms, no information, nothing!! Finally we joined the chaotic queue to try and hand our form in, and also check we had completed the form correctly. I was then handed a piece of paper with the contact number to call. I called the number on Sunday twice to receive a very vague message – I was told someone couldn’t take my call and to leave a message. I did, wondering if they would call me back. No where on the Thomson notice does it say what time this number is open to call. After no attempt to get through on Sunday and early today, I tried the ‘Sixth day’ number. THis was answered, but guess what at a cost of 10p per minute!!! what a joke, my luggage is lost and I have to pay to chase it! something is not quite right here. I finally spoke to someone, who was unable to give me any more information and about 10 minutes later, I hung up, none the wiser. I called again at 7.30pm tonight to find out one of our three bags was delivered to Gatwick today but we won’t get it until 6th Jan, as they have a new courier (god knows what that actually means). But on the positive we are one step closer to getting one bag – the bag with our snowboards. They were unable to update me on the other two bags, these are still in Geneva. So i eagerly sit and await this 36 hours deadline that Geneva airport PR people have pushed out to the media. What is funny (or maybe not), is that we are heading back to Geneva for a second snowboarding trip on Sunday. Our fingers are crossed that we’ll have our gear back in time to re-wash and re-pack, and even at this stage, I’m prepared to wear my smelly gear. In the back of mind, I can hear my dad saying ‘it’s just material possessions, don’t worry about it’, but the inconvenience (I have had to take time off work to go to the doctors tomorrow to get medication), I have to buy new contact lenses and I’m cold!! Just a little bit of customer service and communication that’s all I want! well and my luggage back please.
January 4th, 2010 at 10:55 pm
Update: I tried the GBS number in the UK, as many of you have done, several times until late this evening, and the message was always one from 11:30 this morning, that they had no news about bags coming from Geneva. My understanding, when I spoke to the airport press officer, was that the bags would be leaving Geneva today, but it might take until tomorrow for them to be sorted and delivered: I will check back with Mr Staempfli in the morning for an update. I will also ask him to check the comments here to get a sense of the magnitude of the luggage problem.
The airlines and airport appear to have been caught unprepared for the strike, which accounts for the lack of communication and information. The SSP union says in a 2 January press release that they sent a letter 12 December to the airport, airlines and all companies at the airport alerting them to the possibility of a strike, but it wasn’t taken seriously. The airport insists it was caught by surprise, although it did issue a letter 17 December responding to accusations by the union.
Swissport is the company whose employees are striking (a small number of them). I’m checking with them to see if they have any information on missing bags.
Has anyone tried tracing their bags using My Lost Bag? http://www.mylostbag.com/en/index.php
January 5th, 2010 at 12:32 am
Here are some more facts surfacing about the chaos that has been created. 5 of my bags out of 10 have been located. I check on “worldtracer” for my luggage
http://www.aircanada.com/en/travelinfo/airport/baggage/worldtracer.html This is the aircanada link but I know that Air France and British Airways also subscribes to “world tracer”. Do a google search for your airline for “world tracer” The information I pull up from the Air Canada “world tracer” and the “Air France” world tracer” contradicts each other. Air Canada claims all my bags are found and are being delivered to the airport. Air France says that 3 bags are still missing in action. Who is right? A lady from Swissport (I think) called to tell me they are delivering some of my bags tomorrow. I took the opportunity to ask her why the two websites contradict each other. Her reply is that the situation is very unusual and there are hundreds of bags they have to deliver back to their owners so she has no explanation for the worldtracer inconsistency. I think this is weird since worldtracer is supposed to be a single database, isn’t it? I said this but she had no comment. It goes to show you that the whole system has been brought to its knees. I don’t even believe what anyone says anymore. They just lie to you and say whatever they can to make you feel hopeful you’re bags are coming back but in reality, THEY HAVE NO IDEA! I spent today trying to cobble together uniform pieces for my children to attend school tomorrow. We bought the school uniform top at school but the bottom (pants and skirts) are up to us to purchase. So, we went to Manor and bought items that were close in colour to the uniform requirement. Usually, I would be pickier but I have no time to picky about price, style, quality. I just need the right shade of color! The kids will not have indoor shoes this week for school. We have no stationery! Carry this pen, pencil and eraser to school. That’s it. It’s a nightmare. You wouldn’t think professional people and companies would boldly lie to your face, would you? Well…I feel sorry for all those people who checked into Geneva on Saturday and EVERYONE knew that they were going to end up at their destination without their luggage. This is no different than deliberately trying to ROB someone of their possessions. I hope all of you that were lied to by Geneva check-in counter personnel, flight attendants, and pilots get together and start a class action suit. I don’t think I will trust an airline again with checked-in baggage. I will courier it ahead myself next time. If the airlines are not sending empty planes to move luggage, it will be months before the backlog is taken care of.
Also, this security thing is such a farce. Everyone is so freaked out about terrorism and luggage yet I bet they didn’t have time to do the necessary scans of the luggage before putting them onboard an airplane. Would you like to be flying on an airplane full of luggage that hasn’t been properly scanned and the owner of the luggage isn’t on the flight? A terrorist’s dream! Why isn’t anyone keeping them accountable for this?
January 5th, 2010 at 10:10 am
pathtic pathetic pathetic… dont they know there lucky to have a job in this climate,,, sack them all. and give the job to someone with some respect,,
January 5th, 2010 at 8:56 pm
They said they were coming at 5 oclock but it’s now 9pm. I have this sinking feeling they are not going to show up with my bags afterall.
I phoned back the number that was used to call me to tell me my bags were coming (Swissport). I phoned several time. It ran and ran but no one picked up. What does this mean? Why didn’t they call to tell me they weren’t going to come today after all? Aren’t they going to call me tonight to reschedule when they can come tomorrow? Like I said, I don’t know what to think but things don’t look too good.
January 9th, 2010 at 3:25 pm
Has anyone had any luggage returned? I managed to get through to the ‘sixth day’ number today ( after a 10 minute wait ) and was told that my 3 bags were in Gatwick with the Swissport couriers. I was given a Swissport number but this does not work. I can’t find any Swissport numbers that are answered.
I also need my baggage for another trip.
Any help or information appreciated.
January 9th, 2010 at 3:42 pm
I’ll forward this to Swissport’s communications office, in the hope that someone is there over the weekend. You might also want to read our latest article: http://genevalunch.com/blog/2010/01/09/geneva-airport-strike-continues-but-passengers-fret-over-lost-bags/
January 10th, 2010 at 11:40 am
Does anyone have any Swissport telephone numbers that I can try? I was given 01293 501875 but this does not even connect? I plan to phone Thompson again on Monday ( another 10p per minute ! ) to complain.
Any information appreciated.
January 10th, 2010 at 11:55 am
You’re right: I just tried the number on Skype and it comes up “number doesn’t exist”, but it is the number for Gatwick on the Swissport site. I then phoned the general management number there and was told this is the old number. The new and correct number for anyone trying to trace bags at Gatwick/Swissport: +441293502134 (from the UK: 01293502134 ). Good luck!
January 10th, 2010 at 6:16 pm
Ellen
Many thanks for chasing this for me. I’ll give the correct Gatwick/Swissport number a ring tomorrow and report back what I find.
I think I’ll need your good luck wishes given what other have reported on the other threads that are running at the moment.
January 11th, 2010 at 6:43 pm
I am still waiting for any news. Cant get thro on 10p a minute line just left hanging as cost racks up. Was not offered a PIR form on return. Pilot just said that they would trace destination from luggage label. Help!!!!
January 11th, 2010 at 7:02 pm
What airline – what city were you flying to? Maybe someone going to the same place can help, if they have news.
January 11th, 2010 at 9:31 pm
Have found out a bit more info on the manchester and gatwick flights luggage.
Firstly, most of the luggage came on overland trains and only arrived in the UK on Friday 9th, the information on the Inghams website and Thomson phone line was blatant lies as only a small proportion came back by plane.
Most of our baggage is now lying in warehouses with the courier companies. A lady i spoke to at Thomson said not to hold our breath for their return, as the couriers usually return around 25 bags a day and have in excess of a thousand to deliver and as a result we may be waiting four weeks if the poor weather continues.
Does anyone know where we can write for some sort of compensation as most insurance companies wont pay out on the return leg of the journey but having had to replace many of the articles in the bag has cost a lot of money so far and I believe someone should be held responsible.
Thanks!
January 11th, 2010 at 9:50 pm
If you registered the bags as missing with the airline and you don’t have them after 21 days, in theory the Swiss Ombudsman should be able to help. But I guess travel insurance companies make their money covering what the airlines don’t. Not much consolation at this point, if you don’t have travel insurance.
January 12th, 2010 at 2:57 pm
We have 11 bags missing. Still no show! Anyone any news on the bags going to Manchester. Can’t get through on that 10p a min number. Anyone sent a story to watchdog yet. Might be worth it. If we all do it they are more likely to investigate & give the airlines the kick up the arse that they need.
Carol
January 12th, 2010 at 3:07 pm
I don’t know if your bags are part of the Thomson lot, but here is a statement from them today, in case you missed it: http://genevalunch.com/blog/2010/01/12/thomson-issues-statement-for-geneva-air-passengers-who-lost-bags/
January 13th, 2010 at 5:21 pm
I think it is definitely worth us contacting watchdog. so many people were affected its pretty likely to get on.
January 13th, 2010 at 5:30 pm
Its very easy to contact Watchdog via their website, I have just done it and suggest you all do the same.Might help us get some sort of tracking of the bags/compensation from the airline or advice at least.
January 14th, 2010 at 10:22 pm
We’ve published several articles on this, and there are comments on each of them. If you want to check other articles, here is the list: http://genevalunch.com/index.php?s=geneva+airport+baggage&x=1&y=6