Improving on Passenger and Baggage Processes at Airports with RFID

Abstract

The costs generated by baggage loss are very high for both the airlines and the airports. The application of RFID technology would reduce these costs extremely. Today’s implementation and chip prices are very high but with time it will decrease. The average industry cost per mishandled baggage is US$100. Approximately 1% of the 1.7 billion bags that passes through the system every per year is mishandled and RFID is an ideal candidate to reduce these losses. Upon full implementation, RFID would save the industry US$760 million annually. 2. Airport passenger and baggage reconciliation systems in use After arriving at the airport, the traveller enters the terminal building at the departure hall. There the passenger checks-in himself and his baggage, which will be part of the Departure Control System (DCS). The DCS after entering all the necessary data will print a Boarding Pass and the long Baggage Tag (BagTag) with a barcode. The Boarding Pass is printed to inform the passenger of the flight number, boarding time, boarding gate number and seat number, and it is used to identify the passenger at the security and immigration check and boarding gate too. The barcode of the checked-in baggage serves the identification until the final destination. The longer part of this BagTag is put on the checked-in baggage. The passenger receives the smaller slip that contains the same barcode as the checked-in baggage. In case of baggage loss the airline is able to identify and find out where the baggage has been lost. Without the passenger having this receipt the airline is not obliged to find the lost luggage and compensate the passenger. In recent years industrial deployments have changed the previous infrastructure of the departure hall. The operation of the check-in system has not changed much, but for