A plane that had taken off from Zurich to Spain arrived at its destination without carrying a single suitcasemedia reported today, with the airline attributing it to ground staff shortages.

Swiss Airlines passengers bound for the northern Spanish city of Bilbao arrived yesterday afternoon in front of the baggage conveyor belt and waited in vain for more than two hours for their bags to appear, the Blick newspaper reported.

Company spokesman Kevin Abalam confirmed that the aircraft which Swiss used on behalf of Edelweiss airlines ideparted with 111 passengers, but no luggage.

“There were shortages of ground staff,” he told AFP, adding that the crew was waiting for the situation to be rectified.

But after “an hour and 16 minutes the situation remained the same and for operational reasons we decided to fly to Bilbao without the bags”.

The reason, he explained, was that they had to pick up passengers in Bilbao and return the plane to Zurich before the airport closed for the night.

“We understand that the situation is not favorable for those involved and of course we are sorry for the inconvenience,” he said.

Blick cited passengers who said the pilot apologized for the delayed takeoff from Zurich which he attributed to “a lack of qualified staff”, but they pointed out that he made no reference at all to the decision to leave the aircraft without baggage.

Passengers told the newspaper that there were no Swiss ground staff in Bilbao and that they waited more than two hours for their bags before members of Spanish airline Iberia told them the plane had landed without bags.