Birmingham Airport's chief executive, Nick Barton, has expressed his regret over the extensive baggage issues that have affected passengers. Speaking on BBC Radio WM's Hot Seat, Mr Barton apologised to those impacted, explaining that a part of the hold luggage screening system had failed.
Mr Barton stated that the screening system is crucial for the security and safety of planes, scanning bags from multiple angles to ensure they pose no danger. He added that in almost eight years at the airport, he had not encountered this specific problem.
On Tuesday, the airport announced that the situation was "stable" and that baggage operations had returned to normal. However, some passengers, including one who flew to Lanzarote on Saturday with EasyJet, reported still being without their bags and having received no communication from the airport.
Mr Barton attributed delays in providing information to passengers to the high volume of affected bags. He also mentioned that engineers had to split the machine to access the failed part, and while a backup plan involved using other check-in desks, the sheer volume of bags destabilised other systems.