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May 28, 2006
RFID to curb baggage losses at airports
If you have traveled around the world and not once lost your bag by the airlines, consider yourself extremely lucky. The fact remains that in Europe a large number of passenger luggage pieces get misplaced or lost by airline staff on a regular basis. What is the use of sticking those colorful labels on the bag if it was going to get misplaced? Added to this is the hassle of getting stuck in a new place without even a change of dress.
Statistics from a survey conducted on some of the major airline in Europe indicated that in the first quarter of this year alone, on an average 15 passengers out of every 1000 lost their baggage. In the US airlines lost on average 10,000 bags a day last year- the trend is increasing.
One of the possible causes for such confusion is that the infrastructure has not grown commensurate with the times. Designed initially to handle 50 million passengers, today Heathrow handles more than 70 million. Added to that having to meet the requirements of baggage off loading and reloading onto connecting flights also makes it prone to several tracking related human errors.
Cost is a big factor that decides how much the airlines can invest into bettering the logistics support. BA claims that nearly every mislaid bag is returned to customers within 48 hours. But it is an expensive business - it is estimated that the 30 million bags that go missing each year cost the airline industry £1.4 billion.
The Solution: Airlines will have to better efficient method of handling baggage. RFID tracking is being tested at several airports, including Hong Kong and Las Vegas. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) said early tests show that about 99 percent of RFID tags are read automatically. But with use of RFID too, the infrastructure is not fully in place and also needs more money. Now isn't it where this whole problem began? So are we reinventing the wheel?
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