Lost luggage worsening problem for airlines

Updated: 11:40 a.m. PT Oct 5, 2006

WASHINGTON - The number of bags lost or delayed by airlines continues to climb, with a daily average of 14,089 in August, the Bureau of Transportation Statistics said Wednesday.

It was the worst month for baggage-handling since the one-time meltdown in December 2004. Massive problems with US Airways’ baggage handling over the holidays then were largely responsible for a spike in lost baggage reports — 9.11 per 1,000 passengers — and a number of flight cancellations.

For every 1,000 passengers in August, 8.08 bags were reported lost or delayed, up from both July’s rate of 6.5 and the August 2005 rate of 6.4.

Trouble with checked bags was partly the result of a ban on liquids and gels in carryon luggage after an alleged plot to bomb U.S.-bound jetliners was foiled in Britain.

Passengers who normally carried their luggage began checking it to avoid having their toiletries confiscated by security screeners.

“The increased number of bags being checked resulted in more mishandlings,” said David Castelveter, spokesman for the airline trade group Air Transport Association.

The ban was lifted six weeks later after officials decided small amounts of liquids and gels could be carried aboard airplanes if they were put in a quart-size plastic bag.

But the trend is for more bags to be lost, stolen, mishandled or damaged. The number of mishandled bags was 23 percent higher in 2005 than in 2004.

Kevin Mitchell, president of the Business Travel Coalition, said seasoned business travelers anticipated bag handling problems during the busy summer months.

He blamed short staffing and strapped baggage-handling systems.

“I don’t think anyone is surprised,” Mitchell said.

it is not that as much as lack of atention in my opinion this past summer i got a call from ewr saying that 25 bags came in to ewr on 1410 that had came down on 1411 from bin 1 that were not offloaded because the ramp did not pay attention. It is a mix of things ranging from the incompitence or lack of care by some on the ramp to the chaotic way a particular airlines system may work. It is a matter of several things. Maybe it is a disgruntled employee at a contract company maybe it is the system but it has nothing to do really in my opinion with more bags being checked at all. The percentages should be level across the field really. As for stolen items I know of a story from our station in SEA that on I think it was a european carrier who had a x ray machine to look for poduce etc a few of out guys were screening our bags for things like x-boxes etc and stealing them till airport authority nailed them one day and 5 got locked up.