2023-05-19 16:04:03
Airlines and airports are facing a spike in lost baggage fees due to the increase in passenger numbers. According to SITA’s Baggage IT Insights – 2023 report, the number of mishandled bags nearly doubled from 2021 to 2022, reaching 7.6 bags per 1,000 travelers.
Staff shortages, resumption of international travel and overcrowding at airports have made managing baggage and ensuring smooth handling at terminals challenging – especially during peak travel periods. The global increase in bags being lost has highlighted the need to further digitize bag processing. As a priority, the industry is shifting focus towards digitalization and automation, with technology investments aimed at further optimization and self-service solutions.
In 2022, delayed baggage accounted for 80% of all lost bags. Already lost and stolen increased to 7% and damaged and stolen reduced to 13%.
This increase in the loss rate occurs after more than a decade of reduction. However, significant process improvements have helped the loss rate per 1,000 passengers to drop by 59.7% between 2007 and 2021. However, given pressure from staff shortages and the resumption of post-pandemic operations, last year’s loss rate was 7.6 bags per thousand passengers, which represents an increase of 75% compared to 2021.
Historically, bags on connecting flights account for the majority of mishandled baggage. This fact was no different in 2022, which recorded an increase of one percentage point compared to 2021, which increases the proportion of baggage delayed during transfer to 42%. This jump is attributed to the return of international and long-distance travel, resulting in errors when moving bags and higher rates of loss during connections. Baggage loading failure was responsible for 18% of all lost luggage in 2022, representing a 3% reduction compared to the previous year. These errors more than doubled compared to 2021, accounting for 9% of all bags delayed in 2022 due to operational overloads on baggage systems.
“After a decade in which the loss rate fell by more than half, between 2007 and 2021, it is disheartening to see that this rate has risen again. As an industry, we need to work hard to ensure that passengers can regain confidence when checking their bags. We, at Sita, are working directly with airlines and airports to help solve the main critical points of the baggage journey, through intelligent automation, tracking and digital platforms”, emphasizes David Lavorel, CEO of Sita.
Investing in real-time information that tells the status of bags has become a top priority for airlines, with 57% of airlines providing their employees with mobile device access to this information. This number is expected to increase significantly to 84% by 2025. Additionally, 67% of airlines plan to offer real-time baggage status directly to passengers, a significant increase from 25% today.
Sita developed the WorldTracer Auto Reflight system in direct response to the high mishandling rates seen in shipments. This solution automatically identifies bags that are unlikely to make it to the connecting flight. So the technology plans and reships the bags on the next available basis, using the existing bag tag and keeping the passenger informed.
SITA estimates that automating forwarding operations could save the industry up to $30 million per year. The recent partnership between Lufthansa and the company, which uses the technology, aims to digitize the manual process of forwarding bags. In addition, the results of the Proof of Concept of the solution suggest that 70% of luggage lost from Lufthansa, at Munich Airport, in Germany, can be automatically reboarded.
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