Over the last decade, the introduction of cutting-edge technology has significantly improved the baggage handling success rate. Across the globe, airports are investing heavily in modern technology to reduce operational costs, improve customer experiences, and to stay competitive. Some of the most common issues passengers must face during their travels are delays in flights, long queues at carousels, mishandling of baggage, missing baggage, etc. These amount to several billion-dollar revenue losses every year and unsatisfied travelers. Hence, it becomes imminent to make sure that baggage is handled with utmost care, and to make sure that the passenger walks out of the destination airport with all his baggage intact. Fortune Business Insights in a report, states that the global baggage handling system market size was USD 8.55 billion in 2019 and is expected to reach USD 14.79 billion by 2027, exhibiting a CAGR of 7.2% during the forecast period. Majority of airport authorities are investing in revamping airport infrastructure to offer better comfort and baggage handling experiences for travelers.
One of the biggest challenges at airports is manually transporting luggage from the boarding counter to the aircraft, which is time-consuming, expensive, and labor-intensive. The automation of check-in conveyors, luggage screening, sorting and reclamation, improves efficiency, passenger experience and safety. Due to the increase in the number of passengers, airports find it difficult to process and sort thousands of luggage every day. This can only be achieved with transport systems working properly and without interruptions. For instance, in India, travelers have often complained about rough handling and mismanagement of their luggage at airports. There have been frequent episodes of misplaced luggage which the travelers never got back, or the plane took off without their bags. Airports are facing problems in handling the luggage and despite their best efforts, the luggage is getting damaged or misplaced.
Airport baggage handling systems (BHS) are a type of system found at airports that is used to monitor luggage transfers at ticket counters. The existing baggage system has several components and multiple sub-systems from different vendors to function in tandem to make sure every baggage is handled correctly and to ensure it reaches its destination along with the passenger. For a very long time in the aviation industry, major airports and airlines have been looking for the opportunity to use Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) in the field of baggage handling. RFID is one of the technologies identified as having the greatest potential to benefit society in the twenty-first century. The market for this technology is rapidly expanding, and an increasing number of businesses are utilizing this technology to improve the efficiency of their operations and gain a competitive advantage. Read more
——
Guest post by Sriram Gopalswamy was covered in Indiaai.gov.in