This article was very interesting for me, to understand how the luggage handling actually works in the airports. It is a main service for us, students in different cities than our own, that we use airplanes many times in the year to go back to our homes.
Every year, more than 20 million passenger bags are mishandled, frustrating both passengers and airlines. In 2015, the airline industry spent over 2.3 billion dollars on mishandled bags alone. Luggage handling is a very complex process, making it important for airlines and airports to continuously work to improve the system. With over two billion bags carried through airports each year, it is vital to focus research to technological advancements to promote a more efficient and reliable process for travellers and airlines.
A lot of examinations made to gain an understanding of the way luggage travels through airports and research technological advancements to help the industry. To reach its final destination, luggage travels through a series of conveyors within an airport. Baggage handling systems read barcode tags, which many times are the source of many mishandling issues, as they fall off or cannot be read by scanners if they are dirty or facing the wrong direction. Many airlines are improving this specific part of the process to improve the overall system.
The researched technologies are currently being tested and implemented by airports and airlines. Many airlines, can report less mishandled luggage numbers with the implemented technologies, a fact that shows in a way, that we can hope the problem to be basically handled in the future.
The blog of Logistics at MGEPS at UPV 