The fact that Swiss took off without luggage on a holiday flight that was operated on behalf of its sister company Edelweiss Air is causing considerable criticism. The passengers claim that they were not informed and waited for hours at the baggage carousel in Bilbao.

On Saturday evening, the Airbus A220-100 operated by Swiss with the registration HB-JBC was in use for its sister company Edelweiss Air under the flight number WK226 on the Zurich-Bilbao route. The dilemma began with a delay, as the medium-haul jet was actually supposed to leave the Swiss metropolis at 17:10 p.m. In fact, they didn't take off until 18:42 p.m., but without the travelers' checked luggage.

According to official information, a ramp staff was available at Zurich-Kloten Airport to load the suitcases. After a long wait, it was decided to simply take off without the travelers' luggage. If possible, these should be delivered in the next few days.

Passengers claim that the pilot stated that the reason for the delay was that there were currently too few qualified personnel available in Zurich. However, neither the ground nor the flying staff are said to have said a single word about the fact that the suitcases will not or have not flown with us.

This may explain the fact that many passengers in Bilbao waited at the baggage carousel for several hours for their suitcases to be handed out. This was completely in vain because they were still in Zurich at the time. The lost and found switch wouldn't have been much help at first either. There are no Edelweiss Air or Swiss staff on site.

A company spokesman explains, among other things, that this should not have happened that way because the travelers should have at least been informed that their suitcases were left behind in Zurich for operational reasons. We now want to analyze the situation in detail and clarify how this chain of unfavorable circumstances came about. In any case, we assure you that the suitcases will be delivered as quickly as possible.

This is likely to be little consolation for some travelers, as they criticize that Swiss and/or Edelweiss Air provided very little or no information or kept them up to date. In general, it is not uncommon for planes to take off without suitcases in the aviation industry.

Time and time again, airlines don't want to wait any longer because losing the slot can cause significant delays that cannot be made up for throughout the day. Under certain circumstances, this could result in significant amounts of compensation. It would probably be cheaper to annoy a few passengers and then deliver their luggage.