Left luggage starting to smell

There are currently 1,000 items of luggage waiting to be collected, luggage that got stuck at the airport as a result of last month’s strike by staff of the baggage handler Swissport.

Some of the luggage contains perishables as has since started to smell. At the height of the strike there were 15,000 items of luggage stuck at the airport. Around 1,000 items still remain stuck at the airport.

Brussels Airport, the company responsible for running Zaventem, has already disinfected the luggage and the area in which it is being stored. The stentch is limited to the area in which people can come and collect their luggage.

Brussels Airport’s Nathalie Van Impe told journalists that “People that come and collect their luggage will no notice it, but is certainly not the case that the whole airport building smells”.

It is hoped that all 1,000 items of luggage will be picked up by their owners. Those with luggage still at the airport should go and collect it at Swissport’s facility.

The luggage will be kept at the airport for some time yet. “We are not allowed to open luggage or to take items out of cases. If luggage started to leak there is a standard procedure that involves it being destroyed”, Ms Van Impe added.

Flandersnews.be / Expatica