Missing baggage adds to chaos at Canadian airports

Sara Formel's family vacation last week to Scotland for a friend's wedding was supposed to be one of those trips of a lifetime. But instead, she said, it turned into "a trip from hell."

That's because the family's luggage — including wedding attire and a car seat for Formel's nine-month-old — didn't make it on their June 18 Air Canada flight from Toronto to Edinburgh.

The family spent much of their week-long vacation shopping for necessities and trying to get answers from Air Canada. 

"It's been horrible," said Formel, who lives in Conway, Ark. "We were stripped of everything that we had, and I don't know when we'll get it back."

Due to a surge in demand and staffing shortages, some major Canadian airports have recently been plagued with long lineups, delays and flight cancellations.

On top of that, travellers are complaining about another major problem: missing baggage, which sometimes fails to arrive during their trip. 

"It's frustrating," said WestJet passenger Joni Hirtle of Calgary. She was reunited with her luggage on Saturday — a week after her nine-day trip to Costa Rica. 

Hirtle's suitcase disappeared after she boarded the second leg of her flight from Toronto. Its contents included $400 hiking boots and a wad of cash totalling $750 hidden in a sock.

During a stopover in Toronto on the way home, Hirtle inquired at WestJet's baggage claim counter.

There were "tons of bags sitting there" and at the baggage claim in Calgary, she said. "They don't have enough resources to be addressing these issues."

When Air Canada passenger Harrison Burton landed in Montreal, en route to Moncton on Friday, he was so overwhelmed by the piles of unclaimed luggage, he posted a video on Facebook.

"It's chaos," he says in the video. "It's insane. They need to fix this."

Burton didn't find his luggage in Montreal, and hoped it would appear when he landed in Moncton, where he lives. However, he's still waiting for it. 

"It [feels] like the face of capitalism basically saying, 'You know what, we don't actually care about people. We just want your money and you'll get your luggage when you get your luggage,'" he said in an interview.