Airlines Lose 30 Million Bags In 2005

[Evel_Penivel]

Not very encouraging news for international flyers. But I have to acknowledge that in nearly 40 years of long-haul flights, transAtlantic and transPacific, I've only had bags lost three times and only once, in 1980, did I fail to get the suitcase back.

 

 

Report Says Airlines Lost 30M Bags in 2005

By BRADLEY S. KLAPPER, Associated Press Writer

 

GENEVA - If you've ever been frustrated after an airline lost your luggage, you're in the good company of millions of others. An estimated 30 million bags were temporarily lost by airlines in 2005, and 200,000 of those bags were never reunited with their owners, according to an industry report released Monday.

 

The report by SITA Inc., a company that provides technology solutions for the air transport industry, also noted that "the problem of mishandled baggage is worsening on both sides of the Atlantic."

 

The 30 million misdirected bags comprised only 1 percent of the 3 billion bags processed last year by airports, up from 0.7 percent in 2004, said SITA, which is promoting technology it says would reduce the problem.

 

Last year, mishandled luggage cost world airlines $2.5 billion, compared with $1.6 billion in 2004, SITA said, in a report released before Tuesday's airline and airport passenger services exposition in Paris. The jump partly reflects improvements in data collection, but also the increasing costs resulting from inadequate baggage management.

 

Greater airport congestion, tight connection times, increased transfers among airlines and stricter security are all contributing to more late or missing bags, said SITA, a Geneva-based company that is owned by the airlines, airports and other international air transport industry companies.

 

But the biggest problem is the growing number of passengers, whose additional bags cause delays and complicate handling, it said.

 

"Growth is welcome but it has to be better managed if airlines and airports want to improve the passenger experience by eliminating delays from the system," said Francesco Violante, SITA's managing director.

 

Mishandling during baggage transfer was the largest single cause last year of a bag failing to arrive with its owner at the intended destination. Other bags were temporarily lost because of airport personnel failing to properly load baggage, ticketing errors, problems with loading or unloading, and weight or size restrictions. Only 3 percent of all misdirection of baggage occurred due to tagging errors.

 

On average, bags are returned to their owners a little over 31 hours _ or 1.3 days _ after they are reported missing, SITA said.

 

There is no industry standard for permanently lost bags, and items in some countries are later sold at auction.

 

In the United States, the Unclaimed Baggage Center in Scottsboro, Alabama, sells more than 1 million items each year. Most of the merchandise sold is clothing, but also includes cameras, electronics, sporting goods, jewelry and _ of course _ luggage.

 

To help the airline industry cope with more passengers and more bags, SITA is promoting use of a tiny computer-style chip on luggage tags that it says will reduce the number of misdirected bags. The luggage labels, known as RFID for radio frequency identification tags, allow for tracking of luggage at all times over wireless networks.

 

The RFID chips also allow for quick removal of baggage from airplanes when the passenger who checked them fails to show up for the flight, SITA said. But the chips are used at only a limited number of airports so far.

 

"The industry needs more sophisticated baggage reconciliation systems and greater use of self-service such as check-in through kiosks and on the Web," Violante said. "This will all help to simplify travel, reduce delays and baggage misconnections."

 

SITA also promotes new technologies aimed at allowing mobile phone use on flights and offers applications for air-to-ground communications and fares services. It had revenues in 2004 of $1.58 billion.

[..]

Amazing. I have never, ever lost a bag in well over 1.5 million miles of tracvel. And nowadays, it is inexcusable with the bar code techonmolgy!!!!

 

Cheers,

SD

[BadaBing]

I quit checking luggage years ago , I can pack enough into 2 carry-ons , rather spend on dry cleaning then chancing having nothing to clean at all :: , plus , i hate waiting for luggage at the fucking carosels , mine always seemed to be the last one out... ::

 

Bada Bing

[carlton68]

They let you board with two carry-ons?

[Old Hippie]

A lot of the lost luggage comes from the tags falling off, and no name being on the bag. I suggest you write your name directly on the bag, not on a tag that will fall off. This can help.

[BrownFox77]

Over decades of business trips the airlines have lost my luggage only a few times and they always did eventually find it, 1-2 days later. However that's for US airlines, knock on wood but so far I've never had a single problem on Asian carriers with luggage (except for lower weight limits ).

 

An engineer flew out of San Fran to Hono to work with me this past week, just on that single direct flight they lost his luggage - poor guy wore the same pants he flew in on all week... They found his luggage 2 days later and sent it to his home of record.

[liquidflux]

Did they stop selling pants over there on the islands?

[BrownFox77]

liquidflux said:

Did they stop selling pants over there on the islands?

 

LOL, I think he didn't want to buy any new clothes 'cause he was so mad at the airlines. His pants were only jeans that he somehow had the hotel staff throw in a washer and dryer each night (he did happen to have a couple shirts in his carry on - I didn't ask about underwear :.

 

Beside having his luggage lost they also gave him a bum rental car which managed to get him to his hotel and that was it (rental company had to come tow it away in the morning) so hotel staff was already trying to help him (this was the poor guys 1st trip to the Islands).

 

He was worried about the Airlines somehow "delivering" his lost luggage to his home, since its a secured bldg and he lives alone. I recalled one of OH's post on housing in San Francisco when he told me he's paying like $1500.00/month for a tiny apt in San Fran.

[Falang]

I was fed up with security and unlock luggage (things were stolen in my luggage) after 9/11 so in 2002, 2003 and 2004 I choose not to go by the US to come to LOS. Air Canada to Hong Kong and Thai Air from Hong Kong. AC manage to loose my bags 3 times in 3 years coming back to Canada and the last time they delivered my luggage 7 days later.

 

Before that I always travel with asian compagnies by the US and it never happend, I just come back from LOS with JAL and they did not lost them.

 

It only happend once to my friend on a Bangkok Phuket flight on Thai Air, one of the luggage was not there arriving in Phuket, Thai Air people were all apologetic about that and said it almost never happend. They track the bag in Bangkok and told us it will be on the next flight arriving in 50 minutes and drag us in the Thai VIP room at the Phuket airport to wait and they delivered the bag there, it doesn't come better than that.

[Falang]

A other little thing that bug me, they say a plane never fly with luggage from a person who is not in that flight but they had to fly 30 millions bags without the owner in the flight 30 milliond time in 2005!

 

A lot of those security things are BS to make us think everything is more secure now.