US$18b in the bag for air transport

A baggage handler takes luggage from conveyor belt connected to a Ryanair Holdings Plc passenger aircraft at Stansted Airport, operated by Manchester Airports Group (MAG) in Stansted, U.K., on Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2013. From two planes in 1995, EasyJet has grown to more than 200 Airbus SAS aircraft carrying more than 59 million people annually, 20 million fewer than Ryanair. Photographer: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg via Getty Images

The air transport industry has cut the rate of mishandled bags by 61.3% globally since 2007.

This solution has in turn saved around US$18 billion, according to air transport IT specialist SITA.

Mishandled bags hit their stride in 2007, at a rate of 18.88 bags per thousand passengers, however SITA’s 2015 Baggage Report has shown that in 2014, this number dropped to 7.3 bags per thousand passengers.

This decline comes despite a significant rise in passenger numbers over the same time period, peaking at 3.3 billion passengers in 2014.

SITA’s CEO Francesco Violante said technology and investment is largely behind the improvement in baggage handling.

“However, rising passenger numbers will continue to place pressure on baggage infrastructure and processes, so the industry cannot afford to become complacent,” Violante said.

“With IATA forecasting continued passenger growth of around 7% in 2015, all industry partners will need to continue to invest, collaborate and focus on baggage management.”

More than 80% of the mishandled bags in 2014 were delayed, with transfers between connecting flights the big baddies causing late delivery.

But airlines and airports are continuing to invest in new tech to give passengers and baggage the best chance at reunion, using processes like self-bag tagging, self-bag drop, systems automation and bag ticketing.

According to SITA’s 2014 Airport IT Trends Survey, a massive 59% of airports have pledged to invest in major self-service programs, as passengers increasingly express a desire to have more control over their journeys, including their baggage.

By 2017, around 69% of airlines said they would provide passengers with real-time updates on the location of their bags, with 66% looking to provide these updates via smartphone apps.

On top of this, around 18% of airlines already offer passengers the ability to report missing bags via self-service kiosks and 10% via smartphone apps, and by 2017, nearly two-thirds of airlines expect to offer these services.

Moving even further into the future, the IATA Resolution 753: Baggage Tracking is coming in 2018, requiring IATA members to “maintain an accurate inventory of baggage by monitoring the acquisition and delivery of baggage.”

SITA’s BagJourney, an end-to-end baggage tracking solution for the air transport community, is a huge solution to tracking passengers’ bags along their journey.

It can also enable passengers to access information on the location of their bags at any time when the airline provides this service and passengers subscribe to it.

Image source: Huffington Post

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