Rome's main airport of Fiumicino appeared to be putting baggage mayhem behind it on Wednesday but faced fresh chaos when customs staff threatened to go on strike.
Trade unions said customs workers would be holding assemblies over the next few days which would cause delays for passengers and flight departures and hold up goods deliveries and the consignment of lost luggage.
They said the protest was the consequence of management's failure to heed their complaints about staff shortages.
"The work load has increased enormously, particularly with regard to anti-terrorism security checks on flights in arrival from countries considered at high risk," the unions said.
Fiumicino is only just emerging from a month of chronic baggage delays which sparked an investigation on Monday by Italy's civil aviation agency ENAC.
ENAC acted after travellers using the airport at the weekend were forced to wait up to an hour and a half for their luggage to come through and thousands of suitcases went missing after handlers failed to load them on to departing planes.
The agency subsequently warned one of the four private firms responsible for baggage handling at the airport to improve its performance within 30 days or face losing its contract.
The company which runs the airport, Aeroporti di Roma (ADR), has also assigned an extra 80 people to baggage handling duties.
BLAME SHIFTING.
But nobody appeared ready to take the blame for the baggage chaos.
ENAC had initially accused baggage staff of deliberately creating hold-ups in order to make their jobs easier or to clock overtime.
It said workers were using tactics such as sticking chewing gum over barcode readers that sort the luggage and using plastic bags to jam conveyer belts.
But after Monday's inspection, ENAC withdrew the accusations of "sabotage", which had drawn angry protests from trade unions who instead blamed staff shortages, a lack of investment, outdated equipment and privatisation.
ENAC chief Vito Riggio said on Wednesday that ADR had failed to do its job properly and that airlines were also to blame because they were free to choose their own baggage handlers and should have dropped inefficient ones.
Riggio also called for more powers for ENAC, which he said was "too weak to be an efficient watchdog".
But top union official Walter Mancini said that ENAC itself was at fault because it had failed to monitor ADR or ensure the necessary structural investments at Fiumicino.
It also noted that ENAC had recently given the green light for baggage handling firms to subcontract out their work, a phenomenon which it said would lead to more chaos and inefficiency.
Airlines using the hub also pointed the finger at ENAC, together with ADR.
IBAR, an association representing 78 Italian and foreign carriers operating in Italy, said that "ENAC and ADR should stop looking around for scapegoats and instead apologise to travellers and to the airlines who have suffered damage to their finances and credibility".
"ENAC is supposed to monitor ADR and its operations and investments and ensure that ADR meets the requirements of the contract granting it management of Fiumicino," it said.
"ADR bears serious responsibility for not having made the investments necessary to provide Rome and Italy with an airport that corresponds to the country's needs," it continued.
IBAR demanded that ADR compensate the airlines for the cost of sending on missing luggage to travellers' homes and the money it will have to pay out for lost suitcases.
The association also urged the Italian government to fine ENAC for its allegedly inadequate monitoring of ADR over the past five years.
Meanwhile, the baggage handling company that was warned by ENAC to improve its record also declined all blame.
Aviapartner issued a curt note stating that it only dealt with 7% of all luggage passing through Fiumicino and that it was awarded its contract after last summer, when the airport was hit by a similar baggage crisis.
Some 2,000 baggage handlers are in service every day at Fiumicino, which deals with an estimated 100,000 daily passengers, rising to 120,000 in the peak holiday season.
No delays were reported on Wednesday for travellers waiting for their luggage but the airport was still struggling to deal with a backlog of thousands of suitcases that have to be sent on to their owners.
