Been on holiday yet? Ever had that sinking feeling as you wait, and wait for your baggage to come off the carousel?
Well, if you were going through Hong Kong, Las Vegas or San Francisco Airports, you might have more confidence your bag will find you, because these airports have invested in RFID as an alternative to bar codes.
Industry figures suggest that airlines mishandle on average 0.7 per cent of all baggage carried. So, with more than 1.6 billion passengers travelling each year, the likelihood is that over 10 million pieces of baggage will be mishandled.(By mishandled, they mean probably delayed, and not necessarily lost)
SITA, the air transport communications and IT specialist has done some work in this area
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) is also leading the charge as art of a programme called 'Simplifying the Business', and reckons RFID could save airlines $700 million annually by improving both read rates and the messaging behind how bags are sorted.
UHF RFID tags in baggae-handling could be read 98 per cent to 100 per cent of the time. Bar-code read rates are much lower in this hostile environment - they can be torn, soiled or covered by luggage ID tags – and rates can be as low as 65-70 per cent traveling down a conveyor.
Sydney is another airport predicted to make the move from a pilot to full-scale use, and now it seems that the British Airports Authority (BAA) which operates Heathrow may be about to dip its toe in the water by starting RFID trials later this year.
That will please IATA, which has been campaigning for more widespread use of RFID. It is believed the reason RFID hasn’t happened so far is only because airlines and airport operators keep on waiting (and waiting) for tag prices to keep on dropping before committing themselves. That seems to disregard the existing economic case which IATA continues to make.
IATA also believes that RFID should be used to track the trolleys that carry food and duty free items on board. Tagging trolleys, it suggests, could mean airline savings of $470m a year by preventing theft or loss, or as the term goes, ‘shrinkage’.
Incidentally, if you’re interested in making an RFID business case, IATA is due to post its own business case for RFID in baggage handling on its website within the next few weeks.