US: Investing in tech to tackle lost luggage

The airline industry says its rate of mishandled baggage is lower than ever. In fact, earlier this month, the air transport technology company SITA said the rate of mishandled bags worldwide was 5.73 per thousand last year, down more than 12% from 2015 and the lowest ever recorded. SITA attributed much of the reduction to investments by airlines and airports in technology improvements. Still, that is small comfort to the lone traveler waiting by a deserted carousel with a sinking feeling. Passenger aviation experts say there are myriad reasons a bag can go missing. “Weather and missed connections are by far the largest proportion” of causes for bags not arriving on time, said Gareth Joyce, senior VP of airport customer service and cargo at Delta. Mark Matthews, director of customer planning operations at American Airlines, agreed. “When you’re talking about hub-and-spoke carriers, there’s a lot of complexity about transferring bags to connecting flights,” he said. Shorter connection times also play a role. While passengers might be able to sprint to the next gate, their checked bags might not make it there as quickly. Damaged or torn-off tags, along with human error, are also contributors. Peter Drummond, baggage portfolio director at SITA, pointed to the new bag-handling data as evidence that investment in new technology and better baggage handling procedures had paid off. But, he said, the drop also coincided with the major carriers beginning to charge passenger fees for checking a bag. <br/>