The technology, provided by SITA, gives real-time information on the status of passengers' baggage, which helps reduce mishandling and solves baggage issues.
Every year close to 15m bags are processed at these two airports and SITA BagManager is now being used to facilitate the loading, reconciling, tracking, tracing and management of all these bags. While SITA BagManager cannot prevent weather or technical issues, which can cause bags to be mishandled or delayed, it can prevent up to 20% of mishandled bags, thus improving the experience for many travellers. In 2014, mishandled bags cost the global air transport industry a total of US$2.4bn; in addition to these costs, mishandled bags also have a high impact on customer satisfaction, affecting an airline's and airport's brand.
More than one hundred hand-held devices have been issued to workers at the two airports which will allow them to scan baggage tags anywhere and provide information on the location of each and every bag. SITA's system will help AAI to determine which passengers have boarded and which bags have been loaded, producing reports to highlight mismatches which are critical to security and in line with international guidelines.
The system will ensure proactive monitoring of the baggage process, enabling problems to be identified and resolved before a flight departs. It will also improve operational decision-making through the provision of real-time information on the mobile devices used by staff.
The Airports Authority of India, which manages 125 airports across India, has implemented a new baggage management system at Kolkata and Chennai Airports.
