Lots of flyers are checking lots of luggage out there – 2.25 billion bags a year according to SITA, which specializes in air transportation IT solutions. Airlines mishandled or delayed some 42.4 million of those bags last year according to WorldTracer, a SITA tracing system.
What happened when things went wrong? SITA says the single largest culprit was mishandling. That happened 49 percent of the time. As recently as 2005 that same figure was 61 percent.
Ticketing error, passenger bag switch, security and other reasons accounted for 14 percent of the baggage problems in 2007. Sixteen percent was because the bags weren’t loaded, and 5 percent was pegged to space and weight restrictions. Another 5 percent was because of loading or offloading mistakes, and another 3 percent because of tagging errors. Eight percent of luggage woes were wrought when airlines made a mistake at the arrival airport.
Ninety-eight percent of the luggage got to where it was supposesd to without problems. Still, those 42.4 million pieces of luggage are — quite literally — pieces of passengers’ lives, and their well-being can’t be taken lightly.
“The 2 percent that is mishandled is a problem we need to fix,” says Giovanni Bisignani, Director General and CEO of the International Air Transport Association.
© Cheapflights Ltd Jerry Chandler
