Baggage handlers are being offered $2000 sign-on bonuses to work at Tullamarine

Travellers arriving in Melbourne are stuck waiting hours to collect their luggage – but recruiters have a plan to try and resolve the issue.

Desperate recruiters are resorting to cash incentives to boost aviation ground staff numbers at Melbourne Airport as international travellers wait up to four hours to collect their luggage.

Dnata and Menzies Aviat­ion, which outsources baggage handlers to Qantas, Jetstar, Emirates, Thai Airways and China Airlines, are short of staff, with the latter offering a $2000 sign-on bonus to lure baggage handlers to Tullamarine.

But it hasn’t solved the problem for frustrated passengers, including Malaysian Airlines customer Ashutosh Gupta who said he waited for four hours for his family’s luggage after arriving in Melbourne from Kuala Lumpur on January 6.

New baggage handlers are being offered sign-on bonuses.

He was forced to wait behind for the cases while wife Shazeea Ali and their two young children took their scheduled transport to their accommodation.

“If you can’t hire people to do the job, do not impose airport charges and taxes on travellers, and at least provide water and refreshments for women and young children,” Mr Gupta said.

Similar complaints uncovered by the Herald Sun online date back to the start of December.

Mike Morrow, who also landed in Melbourne, said staff took more than an hour to announce issues with his flight’s luggage.

The cash incentives are aiming to boost aviation ground staff numbers.

Menzies Aviation’s vice- president for ground handling, Chris Duffield, said the company’s recent recruitment drive was “significantly impeded” due to a challenging labour market.

Menzies Aviation serviced 60 international flights in late November. Last week, it had to deal with 175 flights.

“This increase has been at short notice and the aviation industry is doing all that it can to satisfy the needs of airlines and passengers, particularly during the summer peak,” he said.

“We are now seeing a significant change, and recent job advertisements have attracted more than 400 applications.

The challenging labour market is being blamed for the baggage handler shortage.

“We’re working through them as quickly as possible to identify the best people we can engage, train, obtain the necessary security clearances for, and inductions to have them on the tarmac servicing our customers’ aircraft as quickly as possible.”

A Dnata spokesman told the Herald Sun it was committed to overcoming the baggage handler shortage.

“We are well placed to meet the rapidly increasing demand for our services and to support our customers through market recovery,” he said.

An airport spokesman said: “We are working with the airline ground-handling companies to rebuild their workforces.

“In the meantime, we acknowledge the frustration that these unacceptable delays have caused and apologise to passengers for the inconvenience.”