Here’s how you can make baggage smarter, with real-time bag tracking

One of the biggest concerns for any airline passenger is arriving at their destination but their baggage does not. The good news is that increased digitization, automation and other smart baggage systems have over the past few years contributed to a significant drop in the number of mishandled bags globally.

According to the 2016 SITA Baggage Report, baggage mishandling rates have plunged 65.3% between 2007 and 2015, saving the air transport industry around US$22.4 billion and increasing passenger confidence in airlines’ ability to delivery baggage on time.

Given technology’s role in these achievements, it’s no wonder that investment in further baggage systems automation and processes remains high on the agenda for most airlines and airports.

The challenge is to further reduce mishandled baggage rates over the next few years while passenger numbers globally are expected to double from today’s 3.3-billion passengers by the mid-2030s.

Bag tracking

The industry’s continued sharp focus on smarter baggage is imperative to further reducing baggage mishandling rates. A key industry priority is to keep track of passengers’ bags through all major stages of the journey – helping improve the travel experience, save money and keep passengers in the know.

Bag tracking is also a crucial focus area given the demands of IATA’s Resolution 753, which requires airlines keep tabs on every item of baggage from start to finish and to maintain an accurate inventory of baggage by monitoring the acquisition and delivery of baggage. The resolution will come into effect in June 2018.

Parcel-like

SITA’s new BagJourney will help airlines and airports track bags every step of the way as well as provide the possibility of sharing those updates with their passengers.

In fact, it’s an innovative solution that enables passengers to track their bag like they would a parcel and is able to follow each bag from check-in to final delivery through multiple airports and airlines.

SITA 2016 Passenger IT Trends Survey shows that 79% of passengers said they would definitely use a mobile bag notification service while two-thirds said they would use mobile to report missing baggage at the airport.

With 95% of passengers carrying a smart mobile device when traveling, there’s now the huge potential for airlines and airports to provide them with real-time information about the status of their bags. It means that passengers’ are no longer waiting for this information to be provided by the airline and have more control over their baggage.

Freed data

BagJourney mines the 2.5 billion baggage information messages (BIMs) which SITA manages on behalf of the airlines and airports in its BagMessage message distribution service to provide a real-time status on each and every bag. More than 220 airports and 500 airlines around the world use BagMessage to exchange information on the location of passengers’ baggage.


It’s also uniquely integrated with WorldTracer – the only truly global tracing and matching service of delayed bags. This allows a bag’s journey to continue to be tracked even if it’s mishandled.


API power

The new BagJourney service is delivered to the community through an application programming interface (API) via www.developer.aero.

This allows airlines and airports to integrate it into to their existing systems quickly and easily, including services such as mobile updates which they might offer to passengers.

Smarter baggage will continue to improve the travel experience and save money, with real-time bag tracking keeping passengers informed.

(This article is contributed by Maneesh Jaikrishna, VP, India & Sub-continent, SITA)