Airlines bring baggage handling mishaps down as tracking tech kicks in

Airlines and airports are seeing decreases in mishandled baggage as they increase the use of tracking technology across the journey.

SITA 2019 Baggage IT Insights reveals that where tracking is carried out at check-in and loading on to the aircraft, the improvement can be as high as 66%.

According to the report more airlines and airports are introducing tracking across check-in, loading on to the aircraft, transfers and arrival.

It says the baggage mishandling rate globally has plateaued at around 5.7 bags per 1,000 passengers in the past 10 years.

The rate is against increasing passenger numbers with about 4.4 billion passengers boarded in 2018 compared to 3.8 billion in 2016.

In addition, the annual bill to the aviation industry has decreased by 43% from $4.22 billion in 2007 to $2.4 billion in 2018.

Transferring baggage between aircraft was cited as the main reason for mishandled bags last year accounting for 46% of the total.

SITA's director of baggage, Peter Drummond, says: “Everyone across the industry needs to look beyond the process and technology improvements made in the past decade and adopt the latest technology such as tracking to make the next big cut in the rate of mishandled bags.”

Further insight reveals that more than 60% of passengers want to use their mobile devices to track bags, receive bag notifications on arrival and report mishandled bags.

The report also highlights a number of airlines, including Etihad, on their improvements in the rate of baggage mishandling.

The Abu Dhabi-based carrier reported a 33% improvement between 2017 and 2018 and reveals that 79% of mishandled bags were delivered with the file closed within 72 hours.