Less lost luggage – and getting the meal you ordered

Airports are invariably chaotic places. Millions of business travellers, holidaymakers and families pass through them every day just hoping they will get where they want to go without too much delay.

Behind the scenes at an airport, millions of items – both luggage and cargo – are transported from point A to point B, yet a certain number of items fail to reach their destination. For each of the 7 million bags that get lost each year, airlines and airports have to pay an average of €100 to get them back.

Thanks to RFID, the buzz of activity at airports around the world is getting easier to manage. RFID technology is helping to reduce the number of items that get lost. It can also be used to speed boarding times and make your flight more comfortable.

Towards the end of lost luggage

You have probably seen how bags are thrown on to belts at airports. There’s no effective way to make sure a bag’s barcode tag is face up. This makes it difficult to read its number and destination – as a direct line of sight is needed between barcode and scanner.

More and more airports are therefore installing RFID to help sort bags and make sure your luggage gets on your flight. Because when luggage is tagged with RFID, it doesn’t matter if the tag is face down underneath your suitcase on the luggage belt – it can still be scanned by the RFID reader. This saves airports and airlines time and money and prevents passengers the stress of lost luggage.

RFID systems can also be used to increase passenger security by way of more thorough luggage checks. For instance, if a bag looks suspicious, officials could write its security status on the bag’s tag and make sure that it is opened in the presence of the passenger.

More safety on the ground

If you are anxious every time you step on board a plane, it may calm your nerves a bit to find out that RFID is also helping to improve the safety records of airlines. A major European carrier is using RFID to support the process of maintaining and repairing aircraft parts. Each tagged part carries key information about its ownership and maintenance history. This helps speed aircraft repairs – reducing delays for you – and improves the overall safety of air travel.

RFID can also help to make your flight more pleasant by reducing the number of catering errors airlines make. In this case, airlines are experimenting with RFID-tagged food trolleys. As items can be scanned in bulk, crew members no longer need to count meal trays individually. They can double-check electronically that your vegetarian, whole-grain, lactose-free or gourmet meal is on board and ready to be delivered hot to your seat.