Lost luggage figures for the year are expected to be bad

Travel insurance firm Insureandgo saw 2,094 claims from January to June - an 85% rise on the same period in 2006.

The figure includes both budget and other airlines. The average amount claimed was more than �200.

Insureandgo expects poor figures for the remainder of 2007, following a spate of lost bags recently.

'Enormous rise'

Based on figures from the Association of European Airlines (AEA), Insureandgo said the number of bags lost throughout Europe rose 22% over the same period compared with last year, even though passenger numbers only rose 1.4%.

The AEA figures exclude budget airlines such as Easyjet and Ryanair.

Insureandgo managing director Perry Wilson said: "We have seen an enormous rise in claims for lost luggage."

The average amount claimed by Insureandgo's customers who lost luggage was about �200.

"With the summer holiday season now in full swing, we can unfortunately expect more families' holidays to be ruined by lost baggage."

The latest figures come after Norwich Union - Britain's biggest insurance company - released figures showing that it saw a 40% increase in claims for missing luggage during the first half of the year.

In January, bad weather and a broken conveyer belt at Heathrow airport created huge confusion over luggage, with British Airways having to send back more than 2,000 items of left luggage to passengers.

More recently, BAA - the owner of Heathrow - has been attacked by business leaders and politicians for overcrowding and lost baggage problems.