Heathrow acts to stop lost baggage
Heathrow airport owner BAA and Emirates Airline are trialling RFID technology at Heathrow to improve baggage handling and overcome problems with lost and delayed bags.
BAA is hailing RFID (radio frequency identification) as “an enormous step forward in baggage handling”. The six months, £150,000 trial at Heathrow will test RFID against the airport’s existing barcode tracking system.
RFID equipment has been installed at nine Emirates check in desks, and check in staff will apply tags with RFID chips to all bags that are checked in. The chips store information including the passenger’s name and route, and are read as they pass through Heathrow’s baggage system.
The same technology has also been installed at Dubai airport, and Emirates passengers departing for Heathrow will be invited to register their mobile phone details in order to receive a text alert on arrival at Heathrow giving details of the baggage reclaim belt.
“We are extremely excited by this project which will track bags at every stage of their journey and could significantly improve the efficiency of Heathrow’s baggage system,” says BAA Heathrow head of product development, Stephen Challis. “In partnership with the airline community the technology could be rolled out across the airport, transforming the way airlines handle baggage.”
BAA has acknowledged problems with the barcode system used to track bags, but insists this doesn’t lead to bags being lost. “The current barcode system results in a small number of bags being misread and requiring further action – ie a manual check by BAA and airline staff. This does not result in a lost bag – it simply requires additional processing by an airport or airline member of staff,” BAA says in a press statement.
“Misreads occur for a number of reasons – for example the tags can become creased, damaged or wet and are unable to be read or poor print production of the label at the issuing airport,” says BAA.
Written by: Nick Purdom
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