NO BAGGAGE

Logistics Asia, 1/3/2008

Round and round. Round and round it goes. And you stand there by the baggage carousel with your fellow passengers from the just-landed flight. The first bags appear in sight from the depths below and they're quickly picked up and whisked away.

A few minutes pass by; there's less people, less bags, but you're still there. The buzz of activity around the carousel starts to diminish and, very soon, there's just you. The belt is still moving but now carrying just a few - seemingly orphaned - pieces, none of which are yours. Welcome to the world of lost baggage.

It's an experience many have been through, and hardly a pleasant one, something I can vouch for since it happened on my last trip to the US. Facing the prospect of a freezing Boston night and an important meeting in the morning in the same clothes you've been wearing all day and without key documents does not make for a happy editor.

According to IATA (International Air Transport Association), most mishandled baggage results from the late arrival of transfer flights - you make it on to the plane in time but your bags don't. However, imperfect logistics technology in the form of bar code reading problems is the cause of almost 10 percent of baggage no-shows.

Specifically, the 10-digit bar code tag that is put on at check-in can deform or get wet to the point that it cannot be read by the laser scanners of the baggage handling system. The affected bags are then re-routed for a handler to manually determine their destination, which results in delays.

It's not surprising to learn that RFID is waiting in the wings to take over the baggage ID function. The reported read rate for RFID tags of 99 percent compares favorably against bar code's 85 percent. RFID is also much faster and does not require line-of-sight.

Just last month, Heathrow Airport kicked off a six month RFID baggage-tracking trial involving Emirates flights between London and Dubai, which is likely to involve a total of 300,000 bags.

Many travelers, I am sure, would be hoping for a successful conclusion from that and other trials, especially since RFID will enable airport staff to track bags at every stage of the process, reducing the volume of lost items - as well as the number of people standing forlornly by the carousel in the baggageclaim halls of the world.