Can lengthy airport queues be a factor of the previous? New digital tags permit passengers to examine of their baggage at house
Flyers can now skip the long airport queues with a new electronic bag tag which allows travellers to check in their luggage from home.
Around 20 airlines, including Lufthansa, Qatar Airways and KLM, have started using the technology, which also tracks the luggage’s location via Bluetooth.
After answering a few questions on an app before going to the airport, an electronic barcode is generated on the device attached to the bag.
The bag is placed on a weighing machine at the airport, and the passenger is able to make their way through security and onto their flight.
To save even more time, some airlines will collect bags with the smart tags from the passenger’s home.
Some high-end suitcases already have the technology built in, with the standalone gadgets currently costing from £50 to almost £180, but two of the main sellers, BagID and Bagtag, claim prices are due to come down.
‘The technology is great. I love it when I can use it, because it does save you time at the airport,’ Andrew Price, the former head of global baggage operations for the International Air Transport Association told the Times.
Jasper Quak, managing director of Bagtag, said that despite online and mobile check-ins being introduced, checking in a suitcase was still ‘relying on a piece of paper’.
Around 20 airlines, including Lufthansa, Qatar Airways and KLM, have started using the technology, which also tracks the luggage’s location via Bluetooth
After answering a few questions on an app before going to the airport, an electronic barcode is generated on the device attached to the bag
‘It hasn’t really changed that much since inception in the late ’80s,’ Mr Quak said.
BagID, which was founded by someone whose luggage was lost, has recently teamed up with Aena, the world’s largest airport operator, to pilot a real-time tracking system at Madrid, Barcelona and Majorca airports.
Speaking at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona Ina Eldoy, the chief executive of BagID, said the the system could alert staff if a passenger’s bag was in one terminal but their plane was soon to leave from another.
She said: ‘Then they know, “I have to rush this bag”, or “I have to send a message to the traveller that it didn’t make the transport, but it’s going to be on the next flight”.”
According to Sita, the international society of aeronautical telecommunications, the loss or mishandling of bags cost the aviation industry almost £4 billion in 2024.
