Johannesburg - Over 42m bags were mishandled at airports across the world last year, Nick Gate, bag portfolio director at SITA, said on Monday.
Speaking at the Africa Aviation ICT conference of the Airport International Council, he said this figure could be reduced by introducing technology that would trace the bags and inform travellers of their whereabouts.
He said examples included using technologies such as self-service baggage tracing via kiosks, or online, to help passengers locate the exact whereabouts of their luggage at any time.
Another option would be to relay mishandled baggage information directly to passengers via their mobile phones.
"Initiatives such as this will significantly reduce the amount of time passengers have to spend searching for mishandled baggage information or even in waiting for a bag which isn't going to arrive," he said.
He said in a survey last year, about 49% of passengers said they were willing to report lost baggage via self-service kiosks if the service was available.
- Sapa