Baggage claims and departure delays now costing USD1.6 billion annually

The figure comes from a report* released during 22-25 February by the global provider of IT solutions to the air transport industry, SITA INC, to coincide with the opening in Cologne of the world's largest industry event focussed on airline and airport passenger services, Passenger Terminal Expo 2005.

Eyad Shihabi, SITA INC Vice President of Airport & Desktop Services, Middle East, Africa, South and Central Asia said; "that given the Federal Aviation Administration announcement of a greater than 10% rise in the number of mishandled bags in the United States alone last year, and SITA INC estimates an average of 15% globally, baggage reconciliation systems would be a welcome solution to increase operational efficiencies and reduce costs for airlines in the near future."

"Disgruntled passengers, important security concerns and the high cost of inefficient baggage handling are critical issues that all stakeholders - airlines, airports and governments - must collectively address," he added.

The report draws on industry analysis to highlight the fact that only a handful of airports around the world use state-of-the-art Radio Frequency Identification Tags (RFID) tags - tiny attachable chips capable of sending digital information over secure wireless networks.

SITA INC's inclusion of RFID as part of its Integrated Baggage Solution is based on a calculation that it can dramatically reduce read errors from today's average of 10% - 15% to under 5%. RFID usage will increasingly replace bar-coded bag tags, which will allow for constant, real-time tracking of each bag's location.

"We feel that in the coming years airports will really start to drive the take-up of this new technology based on the kind of positive experiences we have had in airports such as Hong Kong. You cannot argue against a cost-effective technological advance like this which improves security and also boosts operational efficiency," said Shihabi.

SITA INC reported a record-breaking year in 2004 for the baggage management line of its business. SITA INC extended its baggage management solutions to 12 new locations: Aberdeen, Abu Dhabi, Astana, Barcelona, Birmingham, Canton, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Hong Kong, London, Madrid and Singapore.

SITA's Integrated Baggage Solution comprises three core modules covering baggage messaging, BagMessage; end-to-end baggage management and reconciliation, BagManager; and worldwide round-the-clock baggage tracing, WorldTracer.

"It's thanks to integrated baggage solutions such as SITA INC's that only around 0.7% of all checked luggage fails to arrive at its scheduled destination in a timely fashion. However, that still equates to well over ten million pieces of missing luggage and all that that implies for customer goodwill and impact on airline revenues," said Shihabi.