Stuck bags add to tangles at Paris airports amid travel boom

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Airlines worked to deliver luggage to passengers around the world after a technical breakdown left at least 1,500 bags stuck at Paris’ Charles de Gaulle airport, the latest of several tangles hitting travelers this summer. The airport’s baggage sorting system had a technical malfunction last July 1 that caused 15 flights to depart without luggage, leaving about 1,500 bags on the ground, according to the airport operating company. The airport handled about 1,300 flights overall on that day, the operator said. Union activists said many more passengers flew without their bags, apparently because of knock-on effects from the original breakdown. It came as airport workers are on strike at French airports to demand more hiring and more pay to keep up with high global inflation. Because of the strike, aviation authorities canceled 17% of flights out of the Paris airports on the morning of July 1, and another 14% were canceled on July 2. Passengers on canceled flights were alerted days ahead of their flights. The scene at Charles de Gaulle on July 2 was busy but typical for the first weekend in July, when France's summer travel season kicks off. Unions plan to continue striking until July 3 but no flights have been canceled so far. They have threatened to renew the strike the following weekend if negotiations with company management don't succeed in finding a compromise. Until now, French airports had been largely spared the chaos seen recently at airports in London, Amsterdam and some other European and U.S. cities. Airlines and airports that slashed jobs during the depths of the COVID-19 crisis are struggling to keep up with soaring demand as travel resurges after two years of virus restrictions. This article was provided by The Associated Press.