John Black, who organised the trip, said it had put a dampener on the golf holiday. The group have now been told the luggage could be in Glasgow, Birmingham and Manchester.

“The thing that annoys me is 99% of the luggage was clearly marked with a Fort Bar sticker,” he said.

“We’ve been going on a golf trip for 22 years without a problem. It’s sad for it to end like this because it was a great holiday.

“They put the staff first before the customer — they didn’t care about us. Security at the airport was shambolic and what happened just made things worse.”

The golfers were stunned when the pilot of the Thomas Cook plane informed them mid-flight their luggage had been left behind to lighten the load as the plane had insufficient fuel to fly to Glasgow.

According to the passengers, the pilot made the decision after rejecting the options to stop and refuel in Germany or England on the grounds the stop would have taken the cabin crew over their allotted working hours.

“Customer care and customer satisfaction have been non existent,” said Alex Kenneth.

“We are still waiting for our luggage to arrive despite being told it would be here within 48 hours.

“The luggage contains things like car keys, credit cards, mobile phones and medication.

“This was a business decision. What was not considered was the customer, which is contrary to any other commercial business. ”

Mr Kenneth said they would be seeking compensation for the inconvenience caused.

They also want cash to cover the cost of having bought replacement items, such as mobile phone chargers and shavers which were still inside their luggage.

“When airborne the passengers were advised that 160 pieces of luggage had to be left in Paphos airport as the plane had insufficient fuel to fly to Glasgow,” he said.

“On arrival in Glasgow, eight of our group acquired their luggage and departed.

“Some people were in different parts of the plane and had no idea that some luggage was left behind.

“Fifty percent were left with no or partial pieces of luggage. Then it was discovered that the luggage tabs were all in the name of the leader or first person on the ticket.

“Therefore we spent a considerable time trying to establish the tag numbers on the members who had already exited the terminal. I am sure this breaches the EU security legislation of air travel — no passport authentication and luggage being tagged with incorrect names.

“We will be looking for compensation and we also expect a documented response to why security was compromised at Paphos check-in.”

A spokeswoman for Thomas Cook Airlines said, “Customer service is always a priority for Thomas Cook Airlines and we would like to sincerely apologise to those passengers whose baggage was delayed from the TCX897L from Paphos to Glasgow on May 25.

“To comply with safety regulations, weight is restricted on every flight.

“When this flight checked in, the combination of passengers and baggage exceeded the weight limit, therefore a decision was made to send some of the baggage separately so that all of the passengers would still be able to travel.

“The baggage was sent on the first available flights we could secure and we would like to reassure those passengers still affected that we are working hard to deliver the outstanding bags as quickly as possible.”