Who is responsible for handling staff shortages?
Hi, I wondered if anyone in the industry can help me with this one.
In practice, airlines use a baggage handling agent and presumably this means using the agent(s) already available at the airport they’re operating at.
But is it the airline that’s responsible for the baggage handling and they subcontract it, or is the airport responsible?
The reason I’m asking is because we are claiming against an airline for a flight delay under EU 261/2004. The delay was due to a lack of baggage handlers, which had been ongoing for weeks and was well documented by the press. The airline is claiming it was “unexpected and therefore outside of our control”. My view is that they were well aware of the issues and are directly responsible for ensuring they have appropriate staffing, even if they sub-contract those roles.