Retrieving lost luggage

I refer to Cliff Bolton's letter (May 8).

According to the records that Air Malta holds, Mr Bolton travelled to Malta from Brussels via Zurich on April 25 on flights LX781 and KM491.

On his arrival here, Mr Bolton lodged a report with Air Malta's baggage services section that one of his suitcases had not arrived here. The report was filed at 8.30 p.m. that day.

Whenever luggage does not arrive in Malta and the owner lodges a report, irrespective of which airline the passenger is travelling on, Air Malta, as the contracted ground operations company at Malta International Airport, immediately commences a process of tracing the whereabouts of the lost luggage. Throughout the four days it took for Mr Bolton's luggage to eventually arrive here, staff at the Gozo hotel where Mr Bolton was residing, and Air Malta staff, were continuously in contact with each other for updating purposes.

In addition, Mr Bolton had also been given a written explanation by Air Malta's baggage services section, which also authorised Mr Bolton to incur expenses for his needs as per the airline's policy.

On April 26 at 5.15 p.m., Air Malta received a communication from Air Mauritius that stated that the luggage in question had been unfortunately misrouted (obviously not by Air Malta) and found in Mauritius.

Air Malta was also informed that the suitcase was going to be forwarded to Malta from Mauritius via Vienna on flights MK28 and KM513 of April 27 and 28, respectively.

On April 28, the expected date of arrival of the suitcase from Mauritius, a further communication was received at 11.50 a.m. from Air Malta's representatives in Austria, detailing information on the changed transportation details of the luggage up to Malta. The luggage was to be flown to Malta from Vienna via Frankfurt on flights OS123/KM329 on the same day.

On April 28 at 9.30 p.m. another communication was received from Lufthansa in Frankfurt, which informed Air Malta that the suitcase had unfortunately missed the connecting aircraft at Frankfurt due to the late arrival of the delivering carrier, Austrian Airlines. Hence, the new dispatch details had to be on flight LH4106 of the next day (April 29).

The luggage eventually arrived in Malta on this flight and was dispatched to Gozo by helicopter on MAC922 of April 29.

The hotel receptionist was contacted to inform Mr Bolton that he could either take a taxi to the Heliport and then send Air Malta the bill for refund, or else the staff at the hotel could collect the baggage in his name and then get reimbursed instead.

In conclusion, the main reason for the inconvenience regrettably faced by Mr Bolton as already highlighted was mainly due to various misconnections. All Air Malta could do was to keep tracking the luggage as it was transported from one destination to another until its eventual arrival in Malta. Air Malta could do nothing to speed up the process of the luggage's arrival in Malta.