More passengers, fewer baggage errors: that's the positive conclusion to be drawn from the report published by SITAwhich examined baggage handling in the airline sector for the 2016 financial year. The specialist in IT solutions and communication services for the airline industry has published its traditional Baggage Report. Here we learn that the suitcases of business travellers were generally returned safely to their owners, at least more frequently than in 2015. However, there were 21.6 million errors baggage for 2016, compared with 23.3 million the previous year, a decrease of 7.2%. A fine performance, given that the number of passengers reached a record 3.77 billion according to IATA, compared with 3.56 billion in 2015. SITA therefore welcomes the progress made, with a ratio of 5.73 baggage errors per thousand passengers, an improvement of 12.25%.
However, European business travellers are not all in the same boat. The report published by SITA reveals significant regional differences. On the contrary, the number of errors increased in Europe last year. The ratio per thousand passengers was 7.82 bags in 2015. It reached 8.06 in 2016, exceeding the global average. In contrast, Asia Pacific and the United States performed much better: the ratio per thousand reached 1.81 and 2.7 respectively.
Nevertheless, all regions have made considerable progress over the last ten years. It should also be noted that in the vast majority of cases, baggage errors were limited to late delivery (77%), with lost or stolen suitcases accounting for only 7% of occurrences. The other problems (16%) concerned damaged baggage, again according to SITA.
