Aviation body working out a system to prevent flyers from losing luggage. But wait, it's not foolproof yet
Aviation body working out a system to prevent flyers from losing luggage. But wait, it's not foolproof yet
Tracking baggage loss or knowing how well it is handled could soon become simple, as the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) is working out a system to track baggage handling and make it known to flyers.
Unlike the internationally accepted practice, flyers in India are still devoid of information pertaining to baggage loss. "Just like air passengers are now aware of the on-time performance of airlines, they will soon have data on baggage handling. Passengers must know everything," director general DGCA, Dr Naseem Zaidi said.
However, the ministry of civil aviation wants the system to be foolproof. "In the on-time performance chart, the DGCA noticed some errors," a ministry official said. He added that the number of delays reported by the airline was actually lower than that reported by air traffic control.
Dr Zaidi said that the DGCA was working towards ensuring that there was no discrepancy between what the airline claimed and what the other agencies said. A quarter of air passengers sampled by a leading television news channel in March 2008 survey believed that baggage loss and its handling were a serious concern.
Data available with an aviation historian Henry Holden shows that the only advantage of heightened security is that airlines pay more attention to passenger baggage. "In a country like India, for instance, it is relatively unusual for baggage to be loaded on to the wrong flight or to be lost," Holden said.
The worst airport in terms of baggage handling has been Heathrow. According to another historian, nearly 30,000 bags go missing at Heathrow every day. According to the Association of European Airlines (AEA) website similar to what the DGCA intends to activate member airlines lose or misplace (though most are eventually recovered) 16 bags for every thousand passengers.
According to AEA, Air France loses 16.3 bags, Alitalia loses 17.7 and KLM loses 17.8. Compared to all of them, British Airways loses 28 bags per thousand passengers.
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