More Bags Lost in ‘05, Study Says

If you’ve ever been frustrated after an airline lost your luggage, you’re in the good company of millions of travelers.

An estimated 30 million bags were lost by airlines in 2005, and 200,000 of those were never reunited with their owners, according to an industry report released Monday.

The report by SITA Inc., an air transportation telecommunications and technology company, also noted that “the problem of mishandled baggage is worsening on both sides of the Atlantic.”

The 30 million misdirected bags made up 1% of the 3 billion bags processed last year by airports, up from 0.7% in 2004, said Geneva-based SITA, which is promoting technology it says would reduce the problem.

Last year, mishandled luggage cost world airlines $2.5 billion, compared with $1.6 billion in 2004, SITA said. The jump partly reflects improvements in data collection but also the increasing costs resulting from inadequate baggage management, it said.

Greater airport congestion, tight connection times, increased transfers among airlines and stricter security all contribute to more late or missing bags, said SITA, which is owned by the airlines, airports and other international air transport industry companies.

But the biggest problem is the growing number of passengers, whose additional bags cause delays and complicate handling, SITA said.

“Growth is welcome, but it has to be better managed if airlines and airports want to improve the passenger experience by eliminating delays from the system,” said Francesco Violante, SITA’s managing director.

Mishandling during luggage transfer was the largest cause last year of a bag failing to arrive with its owner at the intended destination. Bags were temporarily lost also because of airport personnel failing to properly load baggage, ticketing errors, problems with loading or unloading and weight or size restrictions. Tagging errors contributed to only 3% of misdirected baggage.

On average, bags are returned to their owners a little more than 31 hours after they are reported missing, SITA said.

There is no industry standard for permanently lost bags, and items in some countries are sold at auction.

The Unclaimed Baggage Center in Scottsboro, Ala., sells more than 1 million items every year. Most of the merchandise sold is clothing, but there also are cameras, electronics, sporting goods, jewelry and, of course, luggage.