Heathrow Airporthas postponed a trial
ofradio
frequency identificationtags for tracking
passenger baggage, which is set to be the biggest pilot of RFID
technology in Europe.
The trial, which was due to start in September, will be pushed
back by at least two to three weeks because details are still being
worked out, said BAA.
[It is now (10 September 2007) understood that Heathrow will
begin a trial of RFID technology in September 2007 as planned.
There is no delay to the project. The trial will test the
effectiveness and benefits of RFID technology against the airport's
existing barcode system and could revolutionise the way Heathrow
tracks and monitors passengers' baggage.]
The airport operator said it would install RFID encoders on
selected check-in desks to tag bags with RFID chips, which would
then be scanned into its baggage handling IT systems.
"This will allow us to compare the success rate of RFID
technology against our existing system," said a BAA spokeswoman.
"We will then examine that insight to understand the benefits it
offers."
The International Air Transport Association (Iata) estimated
that the use of RFID technology could save airports and airlines
£375m a year through lower system running costs and fewer lost
luggage claims.
An Iata analysis of performance data showed that baggage
mishandling had increased by 30% in the first half of 2007,
compared with 2005. It said this was driving the business case for
using RFID in airports.
A paper on the challenges of implementing the technology,
produced by Trinity College Dublin, said that using RFID tags
might require companies to invest in additional infrastructure,
which could add to costs.
"The challenge of information management is exacerbated by RFID
technology because of the sheer amount of data it generates," said
Mairead Brady, lecturer in business studies at Trinity College
Dublin.
"RFID technology generates a tremendous amount of data on a
continuous basis and there is a clear need to develop application
software capable of fully exploiting it before benefits can be
realised."
Jen Albornoz Mulligan, an analyst at Forrester Research, said
users still know very little about the security issues related to
RFID systems, and few are encoding sensitive data on the tags they
issue.