Not Losing Our Luggage Has Made Airlines $18 Billion Richer
Photo Credit: Businessman at an airport check-in counter. SITA
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It's nice to know our bags are less likely to get lost, but these improvements are unlikely to make those baggage fees disappear.
Lost luggage is a nuisance for passengers and expensive to airlines.
But new innovations in technology and processes are making mishandled luggage less likely, and airlines' books look better as a result.
Over the last seven years, airlines and airports have lost 61.3% fewer bags and saved $18 billion dollars as a result, says a new Baggage Report from aviation information technology firm, SITA.
Out of every 1,000 passengers, only 7.3 bags were mishandled last year. That’s despite a significant increase in passenger enplanments of 33.3% from 2007, with 3.3 billion of us getting on a plane during 2014.
SITA’s CEO Francesco Violante attributes improvements in baggage handling technology and new baggage processing systems for these improvements. “The investment the industry has made in baggage systems automation and processes have made a huge difference to the reliability and speed of baggage delivery, in parti
