The incidence of mishandled baggage on commercial flights worldwide reached an incidence of 7.6 per thousand passengers in 2022, representing a year-on-year increase of 74.7%, SITA Director of Baggage Nicole Hogg has pointed out. SITA is the international company which acts as an information technology (IT) provider to the world’s airlines (and should not be confused with South Africa’s State Information Technology Agency).

Of the increase in baggage mishandling, 42% was accounted for by failure to timeously transfer baggage from one aircraft to another during flight transfers. Because of these transfer problems, baggage on international flights was some eight times more likely to be mishandled than baggage on domestic flights.

And, even when baggage was not mishandled, passengers were too often experiencing significant delays in their baggage being delivered to them by the baggage carousels in the airport terminals.

These problems, she pointed out, were the result of the faster-than-expected recovery in especially international air passenger demand, following the Covid-19 pandemic. Airlines, airports and ground handling companies were consequently struggling with staff and resource issues, compounded by the lack of experience and expertise of newly recruited staff.

The result has, she reported, been a loss of confidence among passengers, in baggage handling by airlines and airports. Passengers were trying to carry as much baggage with them into the cabins as they possibly could. She cited an experience she had had, on a flight which was delayed by more than an hour precisely because the passengers brought too much baggage into the cabin, where there was no space for it. The passengers simply didn’t trust the airport and airline not to mishandle their baggage.

“The industry recognises that restoring passengers’ confidence to check their baggage is a top priority,” she assured. “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.”

Hogg noted that airlines and airports were both making further investments in IT to help deal with their current challenges, increasing automation and self-service by passengers. SITA data indicated that 84% of the world’s airlines intended to provide real-time baggage status information to their staff by 2025. And 67% of airlines intended to provide such data to their passengers, by the same date. Further, the implementation of touchless baggage tagging methods, using kiosks and passengers’ mobile devices, was a priority for 95% of airports and 98% for airlines.

“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 digitalisation across the whole value chain,” she affirmed. “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.”