‘It’s carnage’: the life of a Gatwick baggage handler during a summer of flight chaos

theguardian.com:

‘In normal times you’d know what flights you were handling at the start of the day. Now you can’t, because it’s carnage. Doing the day shift’s not too bad, but on a late or night shift, people are getting hammered … nothing’s going to plan, the planes are all coming in late – you don’t really have time to take on food, or take a break.

I’ve worked at Gatwick for 20 years. But with so many new people we’re having to train them over again on how to lift things without breaking their backs. Everything takes twice the time – and everything is time-focused at an airport.

Since some airlines cut their schedules, we at least have the numbers on my firm. Others still don’t have enough people with skills to do all parts of the job.

Because one air traffic controller was sick they were only allowing 15 flights an hour to take off on Wednesday. The handling agents will have worked out shifts for flights to take off on time – but the nightshift then had to pick up inbound flights and load aircraft that are late. Kit that I needed on stands in the morning wasn’t there and I had to go and find it.

Nearly everything is manual, lifting by hand. Normally it’s only four and half foot high (1.4m) in the hold, so the average loader has to lift 150 bags in 40 minutes on his knees, layering them like bricks. In an eight-hour shift you have to do about six planes, you’re lifting about 20 tonnes a day.

The whole of the airport has got CCTV – the airlines can log in from anywhere in the world, so Big Brother is watching all the time. If your plane goes late, you’re up for a disciplinary. People are rushing around to get the job done, but it puts you at risk of having an accident. You have to tow equipment the length of an articulated lorry. If you