A spokesperson for Manchester Airport has confirmed what passengers had believed for many years: their baggage handlers are actually targeted on breakages.
If you’ve ever seen how suitcases and other forms of luggage are loaded and unloaded from planes at Manchester Airport, this will come as no surprise to you. Even when they’re taken on and off the conveyor belts by baggage handlers, they’re given a little extra oomph so they crack, tear or shatter whatever is inside.
Finally it has been confirmed that this is part of Manchester Airport’s strategy.
Baggage handlers for Manchester Airport aren’t just targeted on breakages, they can even be dismissed if they fail to hit those targets.
Dimitri Cavaré, a French national, was fired in August for failing to break a single piece of luggage during the month of July.
The basic targets baggage handlers are set include breaking at least one in ten pieces of luggage they touch. Experienced baggage handlers can break as many as one in five, with the top earners managing to smash one in three.
James Sandford, from Chester, is the leading destroyer of baggage at Manchester airport. He has one in two stats, meaning he can destroy every other piece of luggage he handles. James is so good at destroying passengers’ luggage that he even teaches evening classes to other baggage handlers on how to throw cases for maximum destruction. He covers technique such as ‘the bounce’, ‘spin and twist’ and how to identify weak spots on cases – even the hard cases, which James believes have a secret vulnerability he refused to share with the Bugle.
Peter Cornish, another of Manchester Airport’s baggage handlers, commented:
James is a monster. He’s the best. He knows just how to throw a suitcase to cause damage.
Peter continued:
At first we thought he was a machine, then we realised where he’d learned his talent. He was a courier for YODEL for three years. That’s unfair. We can never reach his heights, or the heights he manages to reach with people’s luggage when he throws them.
We asked Manchester Airport for a comment on the story but they refused to answer.
Other ways baggage handlers at Manchester Airport are graded include the comments they receive on Twitter. The more complaints they receive from people who have had their cases damaged, the bigger their bonuses.
Such great feedback from Twitter includes Teigan’s comment:
Absolutely fucking fuming that @manairport have managed to damage my Louis Vuitton suitcase! Why tf can't they take more care?? Disgusting..
— teigan (@teiganarcher) June 2, 2017
While Sarah offered the following glowing review of the baggage handlers abilities:
.@EtihadAirways baggage ground staff were rude&unhelpful in @manairport.While etihad desk staff were sympathetic, damage is beyond wear&tear
— Samantha Colosimo (@sjcolosimo) January 17, 2016
What do the Bugle’s readers think about the revelations? Have you travelled from Manchester Airport recently? Was your luggage damaged by one of the handlers? Let us know in the comments below.
