By Chika Goodluck-Ogazi ngrguardiannews.com
THE eighth annual global information and telecommunication solutions air transport industry baggage report, provided by SITA, showed that 99.1 per cent of checked baggage was delivered on time to passengers during 2011.
This represented 20.3 per cent improvement and a saving of $650 million to the air transport industry over 2010, the highest rate of successful delivery since the report was first produced.
According to SITA, any mishandled bag, checked baggage that has been delayed, damaged, pilfered, lost or stolen is a concern for both passengers and airlines but significant improvements have been made by the industry in recent years.
SITA’s report showed that the mishandled rate has more than halved since 2007, down 52.4 per cent from 18.88 bags per thousand passengers in 2007 to 8.99 bags per thousand last year.
The Chief Executive Officer, Francesco Violante said, “This is great news for the industry. Significantly improving the handling of baggage to over 99 per cent has saved airlines $650 million while also providing better service to passengers. During 2011, even though we saw a rise in the number of passengers travelling to 2.87 billion passengers, the industry achieved a reduction in mishandled bags to 25.8 million. This is 6.5 million fewer bags mishandled than 2010’s figure of 32.3 million”.
He added that, “Of course, 2011 was less challenging than 2010 when adverse weather and volcanic ash clouds caused major disruption but the fact that the industry has halved the mishandled rate over the past five years is an enormous achievement which has benefited millions of passengers and directly delivered improvements to airline earnings. “These results are due to concerted efforts by airlines, airports and ground handlers through the IATA Baggage Improvement Program; increased focus on standards and best practices by the Airports Council International; and the implementation of sophisticated baggage management solutions such as SITA BagManager, he said.
SITA is the IT provider for the air transport industry and operates WorldTracer, the global system that helps airlines track down mishandled luggage. Used by more than 450 airlines and ground handlers, WorldTracer collates reports of missing bags and delivers updated information on actual locations from more than 100 airports around the world. During 2011, WorldTracer recorded 8.99 mishandled bags per thousand passengers, down from 12.07 in 2010.
Despite the great strides made by the air transport industry to improve mishandling over the last few years, the main – and growing – contributor to the problem is ‘transfer bags’. Typically, these bags go astray when passengers and their luggage are moving from one aircraft to another, and often from one carrier to another, en route to their final destination.
Regardless of the type of journey, mishandled baggage is an inconvenience for the passenger and an unwelcome cost for the airlines. In total, transfer bags account for 53 per cent of all delayed luggage and costs the industry at least $1.36 billion per annum.
Violante said, “SITA will continue to work with the community to ensure that the best processes and technologies are used to conquer this challenge.”
Over the past year when the overall mishandling rate dropped, the number of bags actually lost or stolen also plummeted by 45 per cent from 1.15 million to 640,000, a welcome improvement for both passengers and airlines. The vast majority of mishandled bags are reunited with their owners in less than 48 hours and in 2011 only a small fraction, just 2.47 per cent of the mishandled bags, or 640,000 bags, failed to show up at all compared with 3.56 per cent or 1.15 million bags in 2010.
The eighth annual global information and telecommunication solutions air transport industry baggage report, provided by SITA, showed that 99.1 per cent of checked baggage was delivered on time to passengers during 2011.
This represented 20.3 per cent improvement and a saving of $650 million to the air transport industry over 2010, the highest rate of successful delivery since the report was first produced.
According to SITA, any mishandled bag, checked baggage that has been delayed, damaged, pilfered, lost or stolen is a concern for both passengers and airlines but significant improvements have been made by the industry in recent years.
SITA’s report showed that the mishandled rate has more than halved since 2007, down 52.4 per cent from 18.88 bags per thousand passengers in 2007 to 8.99 bags per thousand last year.
The Chief Executive Officer, Francesco Violante said, “This is great news for the industry. Significantly improving the handling of baggage to over 99 per cent has saved airlines $650 million while also providing better service to passengers. During 2011, even though we saw a rise in the number of passengers travelling to 2.87 billion passengers, the industry achieved a reduction in mishandled bags to 25.8 million. This is 6.5 million fewer bags mishandled than 2010’s figure of 32.3 million”.
He added that, “Of course, 2011 was less challenging than 2010 when adverse weather and volcanic ash clouds caused major disruption but the fact that the industry has halved the mishandled rate over the past five years is an enormous achievement which has benefited millions of passengers and directly delivered improvements to airline earnings. “These results are due to concerted efforts by airlines, airports and ground handlers through the IATA Baggage Improvement Program; increased focus on standards and best practices by the Airports Council International; and the implementation of sophisticated baggage management solutions such as SITA BagManager, he said.
SITA is the IT provider for the air transport industry and operates WorldTracer, the global system that helps airlines track down mishandled luggage. Used by more than 450 airlines and ground handlers, WorldTracer collates reports of missing bags and delivers updated information on actual locations from more than 100 airports around the world. During 2011, WorldTracer recorded 8.99 mishandled bags per thousand passengers, down from 12.07 in 2010.
Despite the great strides made by the air transport industry to improve mishandling over the last few years, the main – and growing – contributor to the problem is ‘transfer bags’. Typically, these bags go astray when passengers and their luggage are moving from one aircraft to another, and often from one carrier to another, en route to their final destination.
Regardless of the type of journey, mishandled baggage is an inconvenience for the passenger and an unwelcome cost for the airlines. In total, transfer bags account for 53 per cent of all delayed luggage and costs the industry at least $1.36 billion per annum.
Violante said, “SITA will continue to work with the community to ensure that the best processes and technologies are used to conquer this challenge.”
Over the past year when the overall mishandling rate dropped, the number of bags actually lost or stolen also plummeted by 45 per cent from 1.15 million to 640,000, a welcome improvement for both passengers and airlines. The vast majority of mishandled bags are reunited with their owners in less than 48 hours and in 2011 only a small fraction, just 2.47 per cent of the mishandled bags, or 640,000 bags, failed to show up at all compared with 3.56 per cent or 1.15 million bags in 2010.
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