(Posted 19th July 2023)
By Nicole Hogg Director of Baggage, SITA
Recently, I was on a flight that was severely delayed with most passengers trying to bring
their luggage into the cabin. There was simply no space on board. The flight ended up
leaving more than an hour late.
No doubt fears of their bags being misplaced or long delays waiting at the baggage carousel
were weighing heavily on most passengers’ minds. They no longer felt confident checking
their baggage.
What are the numbers telling us?
Data from the latest SITA Baggage IT Insights report confirms a spike in baggage
mishandling emerging from the pandemic. Over the past year, we’ve seen a swifter-than-
expected recovery of passenger demand, particularly for international travel. The latest data
from IATA shows global traffic for April 2023 to have reached 90.5% of April 2019 levels, with
traffic surges at holiday periods matching and even surpassing pre-pandemic levels.
This has coincided with airlines, airports, and ground handlers still suffering staff and
resource shortages, along with a lack of baggage experience and expertise in new staff. The
2023 Baggage IT Insights report shows the global rate of mishandled bags per thousand
passengers jumped 74.7% from 2021 to 2022, reaching 7.6.
One of the biggest pain points contributing to this is transfers, where bags are connected
from one flight to another. The proportion of mishandled bags delayed at transfer increased
to 42%, owing to the resurgence of international and long-haul travel. The likelihood of
mishandling a bag on international routes is about eight times higher compared to domestic
routes due to the challenges at transfer.
Rebuilding passenger confidence: digitalisation is the key
The industry recognizes that restoring passengers’ confidence to check their baggage is a
top priority. Digitalisation has proven a tried-and-true lever to achieve this while boosting
operational efficiency and customer satisfaction. Wide implementation of technologies for
the automated tracking and repatriation of baggage contributed to a 70% drop in the
mishandling rate from 2007 to 2019.
Airlines and airports have already been investing in IT solutions that deliver greater
automation and self-service to tackle the current challenges. According to SITA’s 2022 Air
Transport IT Insights, by 2025, 84% of airlines plan to provide real-time baggage status
information to their staff and 67% plan to offer this to passengers. In addition, touchless bag
tagging options that rely on kiosks and passengers’ mobile devices are a priority for 98% of
airlines and 95% of airports.
We know that passengers embrace this too: SITA’s 2022 Passenger IT Insights report found
that greater technology adoption giving passengers more autonomy and control in baggage
processes correlates with more positive emotions from passengers. From 2016 to 2022,
technology adoption at the bag collection stage rose from zero to 29% of passengers
receiving mobile notifications for bag collection. In the same period, passengers reported a
9% increase in positive emotions at bag collection.
Identifying and addressing key pain points in the baggage journey
The post-pandemic recovery has thrown into stark relief the key challenges airports are
facing along the baggage journey, and the major advantages of having greater visibility and
digitalization across the whole value chain. At SITA, we continue to work directly with
airlines and airports to help resolve key pain points in the journey through smart automation,
tracking, and digital platforms, with the aim of restoring passengers’ confidence to check in
their bags.
For example, in partnership with Lufthansa, we have developed the WorldTracer Auto
Reflight system in direct response to the high mishandling rates observed at transfer. This
collaborative innovation uses digital automation to suggest suitable routing for rush bags and
informs the baggage system of new bag routing using the original bag tag. It proactively
informs the passenger upon arrival of any delay, allowing them to save time by bypassing
baggage collection and tracking their bag’s new journey and delivery via mobile.
The results of the recent Proof of Concept suggest that we can automatically reflight as
much as 70% of Lufthansa’s mishandled bags at Munich Airport. With repatriation of
mishandled bags costing an estimated $150 per bag, we estimate that automation of reflight
operations could save the industry up to $30 million per year.
Elsewhere we’re working to provide end-to-end visibility of the whole baggage journey,
eventually ensuring passengers can track their bags in the same way they would track the
delivery of a parcel. We have worked closely with our industry partners to develop solutions
like SITA Bag Manager, which scans and evaluates every bag that is loaded onto a plane, a
ULD, or a cart, and SITA Bag Journey, which transforms baggage processing information
from each step of the journey into a chronological, user-friendly view of what has happened
to the bag.
With smart technology like this on their side, airlines and airports are equipped to provide
both staff and passengers a precise, real-time view of where bags are at each step of the
journey, via mobile for maximum convenience, allowing them to breathe easy with their bags
checked.
