SITA: Global baggage handling improves nearly 24%

Ground staff at the world's airports reduced the number of mishandled bags last year by 23.8%, resulting in savings of $460 million for airlines, according to SITA's "2010 Baggage Report" released in late March.

SITA said that 2.2 billion passengers reported the mishandling of 25 million pieces of luggage in 2009, 7.8 million fewer bags than in 2008 and an improvement of more than 40% from 2007 numbers.

"Some of the decline can be attributed to fewer passengers traveling last year but the 2.9% decline in passenger numbers is still far smaller than the 23.8% decline in mishandled baggage. Improvements in baggage handling systems and passengers checking in fewer bags to avoid extra fees have also contributed to the overall decline," SITA CEO Francesco Violante said.

SITA said 52% of bags go missing during airport transfers; 16% fail to ever load the aircraft; 13% suffer from a ticketing error, bag switch or security issue; 6% are lost due to customs, weather or space/weight restrictions; 7% are mislaid owing to a loading or offloading error; 3% suffer from mishandling on arrival, and 3% are tagged incorrectly. It said 3.4% of the 25 million mishandled bags went unclaimed or were stolen.

SITA's WorldTracer baggage tracing system is used by more than 440 airlines and ground handling companies.