Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Training / Qualification
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Weight And Balance
General None Reported / Taken
Human Factors
The airport manager at [our destination] brought to my attention that the previous day's [load planning on a charter flight] had given us the incorrect number of loaded bags in the aft cargo. They told us (the crew) they had loaded 89 bags aft with 160 people on board. That bag count seemed low to us as a crew and we questioned two ground crew members if that was in fact correct and they confirmed the correct bag count aft. The airport manager informed us the crew today that there were approximately 50 additional bags aft that were not accounted for.The station should be trained on the proper bag loading procedure. There should also be a [company] ground supervisor to be able to possibly ride along on these charter flights to supervise the ground personnel that are not accustomed to [company] flights.
The ground handlers in [this airport] are horrible. We cringe every time we see [this airport] on our schedule. They are disorganized; an embarrassment to [company]; and after this flight; [I believe] they are unsafe. Any time we have a complaint about the ground handlers on these charter flights we are told; 'well they are the cheapest so we are not going to switch ground handlers'. Every other airline operates out of [this airport]; there has to be a better and safer option than [the company] that we are currently contracted with at that airport.
MD-83 flight crew reported they were told after completion of a charter flight that the contract ground operations company at the departure airport gave them incorrect information on their weight manifest.