Sydney resident Julie, who did not want to disclose her last name, was separated from her luggage after flying to Melbourne with Qantas on Good Friday. Her bag arrived at her Sydney address six days later after she spent about $400 on items for the holiday - money she believed could only be partially compensated with travel insurance.

Loading

“I find the whole thing is so unbelievable from a national carrier,” she said. “We spend a lot of money on Qantas, we are frequent flyers, it is just not what you expect.”

A Qantas spokesman said delayed baggage had now returned to normal levels, with fewer than 200 items yet to be reunited with customers because of difficulties making contact.

The Business Council of Australia has called the delays “inevitable” after the workforce in some airports declined as much as 40 per cent during two years of economic shutdowns, but Transport Workers Union national assistant secretary Nick McIntosh said there was no short-term fix to the underlying problem.

He blamed the Easter scenes on Qantas outsourcing baggage handling and cabin cleaning to aviation service provider Swissport in 2021 under an increasingly casualised workforce. “We anticipate there will be issues again,” McIntosh said. “Just putting some head office staff in will not magically resolve the issues.”

Qantas has rejected the union’s claims, saying aviation is no different from other industries that have been impacted by isolation requirements and COVID cases. Swissport was unable to respond by deadline.

The Market Recap newsletter is a wrap of the day’s trading. Get it each weekday afternoon.