Baggage: the inside story
The latest performance statistics and trends for baggage handling across the air travel industry – including mishandling rates by region.
Read SITA’s Baggage Insights Report 2024
The authoritative guide to baggage handling performance and trends
SITA’s WorldTracer® platform is used by over 2,800 airports and over 500 airlines. It’s the de facto standard for baggage management. That’s why it’s also the world’s only global source of air travel baggage management analysis.
Each year, SITA publishes its authoritative guide to baggage loss statistics across the global air travel industry. We show the statistics and trends for passenger numbers – and the associated bag management issues which spring from rapidly growing customer volumes.
The industry has adjusted superbly to the rapid resurgence in passenger numbers. But we all know there are even bigger challenges ahead.
Soaring baggage volumes
It’s very clear that, in general, our industry is getting much better at bag handling. The global mishandled bag rate (MBR) has dropped by 63% since 2007 – down from around nineteen mishandled bags per thousand to less than seven. In the past year alone, MBR improved by around 9%.
So far, so good. Yet, what’s also clear is that baggage delays and losses are hugely impacted by air travel growth. Passenger numbers are rising so fast that – even as the percentage of mishandled bags gets better – the total volume of mishandled bags gets worse. In the past year, in total over 10 million more bags were delayed, mislaid, misdirected, pilfered or stolen.
Global baggage trends
Regional variations
Data sharing
Surging passenger numbers
Baggage facts and stats
SITA’s report on global baggage handling trends 2024 gives in-depth insight into the key trends across the industry:
- Global mishandling rates for domestic and international flights
- Baggage mishandling rates by region
- Long-term baggage trend vs growing passenger volumes
- The need for more data sharing among stakeholders
- Investments in self-service bag drop
- Digitalization and potential impact of biometrics
Why is Asia’s mishandling rate low?
Asia Pacific has a baggage mishandling rate that’s half that of the USA and one third that of Europe. And that’s despite Asia Pacific’s passenger numbers increasing by 113% in 2023. On the surface that seems remarkable. Why would Asian airlines mislay or misdirect a lot less baggage than their European or American peers?
SITA’s own experience suggests one possibility. Working together with Airports Authority of India (AAI), we deployed innovative tech across 44 of India’s largest airports. SITA Bag Manager helped cut mishandling rates by 20%; reducing losses and security issues.
Pinpointing the problems
The Global Baggage Report offers straightforward insights for the industry. Can you guess what makes up the single biggest source of mishandled baggage? It’s obvious when you think about it. It’s transfers: about half of all mishandled baggage happens during transfers.
Differing destination types also have varying rates of mishandling. International routes are five times more likely to lose luggage than domestic flights. Three quarters of bags are simply delayed. One in five bags is damaged or pilfered. One in twenty bags is lost or stolen – which accounts for about 1.8 million bags, a literal mountain of luggage.
The introduction of biometric technology at airports, RFID tracking and AI for baggage will help reduce and recover losses, cut crime and improve security.
Baggage technology
Mobile technology
