Thousands of people travel by air and train each day, which makes airports one of the busiest places on the planet. Since it involves the frequent movement of numerous passengers, errors are also expected in various departments. It is nothing new, and the travel industry continually works to minimize errors. If we examine the impact of delays caused by these errors, they have a significant effect on passengers and those connected to them. Lots of careers and lives are at stake when it comes to flight delays. One of the most common reasons for such delays is flaws in baggage handling systems. Let’s find out everything about them and their solutions.
Before we address the issues, let's take a look at the impact they have on passengers. Since it is common all over the world, we can expect a global similarity in the mental, physical, and financial impacts on passengers.
• Many passengers face continuous stress when their luggage goes missing or is misrouted. It is like a panic situation where one knows that their belongings are about to be gone forever. This is a mental challenge that passengers face, as baggage theft is also common around the world.
• People who have precious goods in their bags know how anxiety affects them. No matter how disciplined a person seems to be, when their baggage goes missing, they get anxiety throughout that duration. It has a profound impact on people with hypertension, heart disease, and even kidney disease. In rare cases, some people may collapse if they discover that their baggage is lost.
• When it comes to delays, it affects the schedules of countless passengers. Not only those whose baggage is missing, but also those who travel with them on flights. The need for rescheduling incurs costs in terms of time, energy, and money. People could lose their contracts because of these baggage delays.
• Then comes financial damage, which is the most impactful for most passengers. It is not easy to lose your belongings, whether they are documents, medicines, or anything else. There are countless items that have high intrinsic value, which cannot be paid in monetary form.
• Wasting time is the biggest loss for some people, especially when traveling for business meetings, medical purposes, or any other sensitive matter.
The first issue passengers face in baggage handling is the loss of baggage. It means everything inside the luggage is either gone temporarily or forever. It occurs when human errors are made during the baggage handling process. Although the laborers who perform this job are well-trained, some still make mistakes. That could either lead to wrong data feeding or wrong loading. Incorrect tagging is also a primary factor contributing to this problem at many airports.
Its solution lies in various types of technological improvements. Airports require machines that can sort luggage with the utmost accuracy by detecting the information on the tags.
• Conveyor systems with detectors can reduce a significant number of errors in the baggage handling process.
• With the use of RFID technology, luggage information detection for accurate routing will become more convenient.
• Introducing automation, such as robotic arms and AGVs, will reduce human errors. It will definitely eliminate a large chunk of human errors and the risk of damages and losses.
• AI technology is helping industries reduce costs and improve efficiency. It can reduce errors in tagging, reading, sorting, and even loading for baggage systems.
The delays are common due to various reasons, such as weather problems, aircraft issues, or even political unrest. These reasons can be accepted, but the luggage issue is not uncontrollable. This is what frustrates passengers because it reveals the incompetence in the management and systems they use.
• Delays typically occur during baggage loading and unloading processes, especially during peak seasons such as summer and winter holidays.
• Tight connections between flights are also a primary reason, due to both controllable and uncontrollable events.
Its solution is the adaptation of modern technology that can increase operational speed.
• Automated guided vehicles are already assisting warehouses in the accurate and fast placement of goods. Using this technology will reduce the risk of flight delays.
• An automatic baggage sorting system with AI technology can reduce errors and delays.
• Improving flight scheduling systems with AI assistance for better calculations and estimations will reduce the occurrence of tight connections among flights.
Passengers may face disruptions to their schedules due to baggage handling issues. Even if passengers leave their origins well in advance of the desired time, luggage delays can still affect them. It is due to management failure, which occurs when the staff is not competent or the system is not stringent. Moreover, using old systems and tagging methods can affect the baggage handling systems.
• RFID technology will reduce the chances of failure in the baggage sorting method.
• Conveyor systems equipped with AI-backed detectors will sort the bags more efficiently.
• Automated guided vehicles will help in the loading process to eliminate time wastage. Since the manual method is more time-consuming and strenuous, robots can perform this job more efficiently.
Misrouting is a common problem in many industries related to logistics. Likewise, airports must be very careful in the loading and sorting process, as a minor error can misroute someone’s luggage. It can not only make passengers panic, but it can also lead to worse situations. Nobody knows what’s inside the luggage, and what a delay would cost a passenger.
• These blunders occur primarily due to human errors in data entry and the loading process.
• Tagging problems, such as using the wrong tag, are another reason why misrouting occurs.
The solution is straightforward, and it involves introducing improved technology in the baggage handling system.
• Use of automated guided vehicles will reduce tag detection errors.
• Baggage sorting systems, such as conveyors with AI-based detectors, can prevent incorrect tagging.
• RFID technology is similar to it.
• Using a combination of manual and automated systems will help experts address misrouting problems.
• Tag proofing with smart devices will ensure that the tag matches the details in the system. It means dual data feeding will ensure that no such error could take place.
Passengers often face long queues due to security issues or baggage handling delays. Baggage handling is a system that we can control and improve more effectively. Therefore, airports need to address this aspect by implementing the solution outlined below.
Introducing smart conveyor systems.
• Sharp detectors that sort bags based on their dimensions for a speedy process.
• RFID technology will enable staff to perform rapid reading.
• Automated guided vehicles will improve the loading and unloading speed.
Some of these technologies are too advanced and may take a few years to become fully functional. Therefore, airports can introduce existing technology to address the most common baggage handling issues. It will increase efficiency and reduce the overall cost of operations. The initial cost will be higher for installing these machines and software, but the returns will be very high.