Travelers who travel by plane increasingly have to deal with issues concerning their baggage. A noticeable increase has been visible since 2014. Last year 24.8 million baggage pieces had some kind of issue. This is one of the findings by an organization Taxi 2 Airport, which researched issues related to baggage based on a recent SITA-report.
A slight increase over the past five years
For many years issues with baggage at international airports decreased. In 2007 there were 46.9 million reported issues with baggage pieces. This number amounted to 22 million units in 2013; a major decrease of almost 50 percent. However, since 2014, the number of issues has slightly increased. Last year a total of 24.8 million baggage pieces with issues were registered.
5 percent of the pieces with issues concern entirely lost or stolen baggage. Last year this number amounted to more than 1.24 million pieces of baggage worldwide. A small percentage (3 percent) usually makes the front page news. These issues are mainly caused by dysfunctioning baggage systems, which have direct consequences for many travelers at the same time. However, the majority of the problems apparently, remain underexposed.
Tackling baggage issues
When it comes to -the absolute figures- the issue is much greater in Europe (7.3 million baggage pieces) than in North America (2.85 million baggage pieces) and Asia (1.8 million baggage pieces) combined. These proportions remained the same since 2007.
Umbrella-aviation-organizations, such as the International Air Transport Association (IATA), aim to reduce issues with baggage by introducing new types of technologies. For example, by collectively introducing the use of RFID-chips and offering mobile applications to their air travelers.
