Airline industry grapples with mountain of bags

Dubai: Nearly 45 million or two per cent of the 2.25 billion pieces of baggage worldwide do not reach their destinations owing to poor baggage management systems, according to a new report.

"We get the baggage right 98 per cent of the time. But with a total volume of over 2.2 billion pieces of baggage in the system, the two per cent that is mishandled is a big problem that we need to fix," Giovanni Bisignani, director-general and chief executive of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), said in a recent statement.

"IATA has developed a toolkit of 40 solutions designed to address the prime causes of baggage mishandling. And, because every airport is different, the IATA Baggage Go teams will visit targeted airports spreading best practice solutions matched with the local needs."

According to this year's Baggage Report published at the Passenger Terminal Expo in Amsterdam, the air transport industry lost $3.8 billion in 2007 because of growing pressures on baggage management linked to passenger volumes, tight aircraft turnaround times, and heightened security measures.

SITA, the IT provider which tracks passenger baggage worldwide for the air transport industry, recently released a major report that shows how baggage handling can be improved at the world's busiest airports through better use of technology, as the industry now handles around 2.25 billion pieces of checked baggage every year.

Figures from WorldTracer, SITA's fully-automated system for tracing lost and mishandled passenger baggage carried by 400 airlines and ground-handling companies, show that 45 million bags were mishandled or delayed in 2007.

Breakup

In 2007, the single largest cause of baggage delay was transfer baggage mishandling: 49 per cent, but this number has been falling steadily since 2005 when it was 61 per cent.

This was followed by ticketing error/passenger bag switch/security/other: 14 per cent; failure to load: 16 per cent; space-weight restriction: five per cent; loading/offloading error: five per cent; tagging errors: three per cent; and arrival station mishandling: eight per cent.

Francesco Violante, chief executive officer of SITA, said while introducing the fourth annual SITA Baggage Report: "Once again, the past year has seen an increase in the amount of baggage mishandled worldwide. It also brings fresh hope, however, in the shape of new initiatives such as IATA's Baggage Improvement Programme.

"It is important that we continue to move towards a comprehensive, fully-integrated global baggage management system that can direct, track and trace passenger baggage throughout the entire journey; from check-in to final delivery at the destination. RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) also has a role to play and could save the industry as much as $700 million if it is fully implemented across the industry."

SITA facilitates communications between airlines and local baggage handling and reconciliation systems to ensure bags reach their correct destination, and its proprietary BagMessage system delivered 750 million messages between airline Departure Control Systems and automated baggage systems in 2007.