The airline industry could save about £350m a year
inlost baggagecosts if it adopted radio
frequency identification
(RFID) technology across the
board.
The annual SITA
Baggage Report highlights areas where airlines could improve their
baggage-handling systems, which currently manage the transportation
of 2.25 billion pieces of checked luggage a year.
Francesco Violante, SITA chief executive, said, "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.
He said, "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 also has a role to play and could save the industry as
much as £350m a year if it was fully implemented across the
industry."
Giovanni Bisignani, International Air Transport Association
(IATA) director general and chief executive, said, "We get baggage
right 98% of the time. But with a total volume of 2.25 billion bags
in the system, the 2% that is mishandled is a big problem we need
to fix.
"IATA has developed a toolkit of 40 solutions to address the
prime causes of baggage mishandling. IATA Baggage Go Teams will
visit targeted airports spreading best practice matched to local
needs."
According to this year's SITA Baggage Report, the air transport
industry lost £1.9bn in 2007 because of growing pressure on baggage
management linked to rising passenger volumes, tight aircraft
turnaround times and heightened security measures.
WorldTracer, SITA's
automated system for tracing lost and mishandled passenger baggage,
shows 42.4 million bags were mishandled or delayed in 2007.
This year's figures may be higher because of the problems
experienced by British Airways at Heathrow Airport's new
Terminal 5.
Last year, the single largest cause of baggage delay was
transfer baggage mishandling (49%), but this figure has been
falling steadily since 2005, when it stood at 61%.
Other causes of delay were: failure to load (16%) ticketing
error/passenger bag switch/security/other (14%) arrival station
mishandling (8%) space-weight restriction (5%) loading/offloading
errors (5%) and tagging errors (3%).