Delta flies plane from London to Detroit with 1000 bags, zero pax

Dhaka: To solve massive baggage issue flying through the current travel hell of an airport Heathrow, Delta Air Lines made a bold move and by flying a plane from London to its hub Detroit packed with 1,000 lost bags and zero passengers.

A staffing shortage that has caused a service meltdown at Heathrow in recent weeks has now been dubbed "airmageddon."

Airport authorities have responded to the cancelled flights and massive lost baggage complaints by telling airlines they must cap the number of passengers at one of the world's busiest airports to 100,000 a day.

So Delta figured out a way to get the lost bags out of the airport, even though it could not take more passengers.

“Delta teams worked a creative solution to move delayed checked bags from London-Heathrow on July 11 after a regularly scheduled flight had to be cancelled given airport passenger volume restrictions at Heathrow," said a statement from the airline. "Delta flight 9888 from Heathrow to Delta's Detroit hub flew 1,000 bags back to the United States, where teams then forwarded the bags on to our customers."

Delta and other US airlines have been hit with their own staffing shortages and service problems so far this summer travel season, causing nearly 30,000 flights to, from or within the United States to be canceled, according to reports.

The disruptions have been particularly bad over holiday weekends such as Memorial Day, the Father's Day/Juneteenth weekend and the July 4th holiday.

"I want to thank our customers for their patience and understanding as we restore the reliability that you've come to expect from Delta," said Ed Bastian, CEO of Delta.