Intelligent Automation of Baggage Handling: A Low-hanging Fruit with Significant Downstream Benefits
The heavy rains that recently hit Dubai caused severe disruptions not just for its residents, but also for arriving/departing/transiting airline passengers. Some passengers reached their destinations in India 24 hours behind schedule, while their baggage reached four days later! Many passengers who used the airline portal to track the status of their baggage kept seeing the static message “tracing in progress” for 3-4 days. This happened even as local agents started calling the passengers to inform them of when they would drop off their bags at the designated address.
It is estimated that 85% of delayed baggage is cause by flight delays or unexpected weather conditions. Although flight delays and delayed baggage cannot be always predicted or avoided, keeping passengers updated is an important aspect of “customer experience”. SITA estimates that in 2022, 7.6 pieces of baggage were mishandled for every 1000 passengers. 80% of these incidents were in the nature of delayed bags, while 20% involved lost or damaged bags or pilferage. The risk of mishandled baggage is estimated to be eight times higher for international flights than for domestic flights.
Source: https://www.sita.aero/globalassets/docs/surveys--reports/2023-baggage-it-insights-exec.pdf
While the recent rains in Dubai may have been an “Act of God”, airlines around the world must prepare for more instances of sudden delays in the face of climate change impacts, aircraft-related supply chain challenges, and actions by pilots/ground staff. They must consciously devise ways to improve customer experience on an everyday basis, besides ameliorating the impact of such sudden situations.
Airline customer experience is the responsibility of many stakeholders
For most passengers, “customer experience” begins with ticket booking and continues through the check-in process (remote or at the airport). For passengers with checked-in baggage, all that happens to their baggage until they see it on the carousel at their destination is largely opaque. Even before the “in-flight” experience unfolds, passenger experience is shaped by customer service agents, baggage handlers and other ground staff- not all of whom are even directly employed by the airline. Yet, most passengers tend to associate their “experience” with the airline. It is therefore essential that airlines help these stakeholders perform their roles with as much ease and efficiency as possible.
Baggage handling is an important component of customer experience
Baggage handling is a particularly challenging task for airlines especially if passengers have to catch connecting flights that involve a change of aircraft. All checked-in bags have to be physically loaded onto the right aircraft- which may sometimes be parked at another terminal. The commercial pressure to turnaround aircraft quickly and maintain punctuality means that baggage transfers must occur accurately and within a limited time. The time window available shrinks further due to flight delays.
Airlines use runners to transport baggage between arriving and departing aircraft. These runners manually collect baggage from a specified area/ramp and transport it to the designated aircraft. While automated tag readers (hand-held or in-line array) help in sorting baggage, runners need clear visibility around where to drop each individual bag. This process is sometimes impacted by damaged or misprinted tags or even last-minute gate changes.
Recognizing that automated, digitalized baggage handling can reduce costs while simultaneously enhancing passenger experience, many airlines and airports are implementing unassisted bag drop facilities that are integrated with the airport’s baggage handling processes. But as Dubai airport’s recent experience proves, there is scope for improvement. What is needed are digitalized solutions that cater to the entire ecosystem.
All staff associated with the baggage handling process at the airport must have accurate and timely information about where each individual piece of baggage needs to be picked up from, where it needs to be dropped off, and where it is at any given time. Such information must be available on phones and hand-held devices. This information must be seamlessly integrated with the system used to communicate with the passengers who have checked in that piece of baggage so that the loop is closed.
IATA estimates that airlines lose as much as US$3 billion annually due to misdirected/lost baggage, so implementing the right solutions can go a long way in boosting airline profitability as well as protecting brand reputation in a highly competitive industry that is only now starting to recover from the pandemic.
Infosys’ Bagrunner Dispatch solution tangibly improves baggage handling
Infosys’ Bagrunner Dispatch App helps runners, ground handlers and dispatchers work with real-time information read off baggage tags to accelerate baggage movement, streamline the process, optimize resource utilization, and improve passenger experience. Using diverse data points such as flight information, baggage data, gate GPS coordinates, and ramp layout maps, it tracks and assigns the nearest runner based on location. If a bag is not picked up within a defined time limit (the SLA), it assigns another runner. It helps optimize utilization of resources deployed at ramps, and supports objective, transparent, data-backed performance incentives. The app also helps identify misdirected pieces of baggage lying on the ramp and dispatch them suitably. This enables prioritization of “hot bags” and cuts down the number of “cold bags”. It also aids route planning, runner placement, searching for mishandled baggage and push notifications to various stakeholders.
Through superior tracking, monitoring, prioritization and routing, our app helped a major airline achieve tangible benefits such as 25% reduction in mishandled baggage and 40% improvement in traceability of missing luggage. You may read the case study here: Digital baggage processes enhance the passenger experience
The Infosys Cobalt Airline Cloud (ICAC) platform caters to a broader set of industry needs The aviation ecosystem caters to both passengers and freight and needs the right technology-enabled solutions to support various facets of its operations. Members use their own systems and data formats, creating silos that are difficult to bridge. This impedes customer-centricity, operational excellence, and thus, profitable growth. Infosys Cobalt Airline Cloud (ICAC) is a cloud-native platform that hosts a suite of solutions built on the strength of our experience and expertise in this domain. ICAC solutions currently support baggage handling, ULD tracking, security, insight-driven customer engagement, experience/loyalty management, and decarbonization. Read more about ICAC here.
For more information on Infosys’ solutions for the aviation/airline industry, write to us on travelpractice@infosys.com
