An airport has suspended its phone helpline after staff were left 'traumatised' by passengers raging over lost luggage - as pictures emerged of brutal queues today at Bristol, Manchester and Stansted

An airport has suspended its phone helpline after staff were left 'traumatised' by passengers raging over lost luggage - as pictures emerged of brutal queues today at Bristol, Manchester and Stansted.

Airport said it had a duty to 'protect staff' after a number of them quit their shifts early after being subjected to abuse.

It said '90 per cent' of calls to its customer service helpline were about baggage despite this being the responsibility of airlines.

Thousands of mislaid bags, including transfer baggage, have built up in and around the airport due to staff shortages. 

As Britain braced itself for the hottest day in history today, huge queues were already forming at airports including Manchester, Stansted and Bristol.

At Manchester two passengers were seen with their heads in their hands while sitting next to their baggage as they waited for their flight to leave this morning.

An Edinburgh Airport spokesman said: 'Unfortunately we have seen a rise in the amount of abuse our teams are facing from passengers.

'Although we appreciate the frustration they are facing, it is not acceptable and there is no excuse for abuse.

'To allow our teams to work through a backlog of airport queries, and to protect them from this verbal abuse, we have taken the decision to temporarily suspend the phone lines. 

'Passengers can still get in touch by email or using the chatbot function on our website.' 

A staggering 17,000 flights have already been cancelled at the last minute this year - scuppering millions of people's holiday plans.

The cancellations within 72 hours of departure are the equivalent of three million seats - and the biggest culprits are easyJet and British Airways, who have stopped approximately three out of every 100 flights they operated.

Budget airlines Ryanair and Jet2 were among the major airlines with fewest cancellations with just one in every thousand flights, according to research by data analysts Cirium for the BBC's Panorama programme.

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