December 22, 2017 TnH Global

Aeroflot becomes first Russian airline to track bags along their entire journey

Aeroflot has become the first airline in Russia to provide real-time location information for all the baggage it handles, choosing SITA, the global IT provider, to deliver an end-to-end baggage tracking solution using its BagJourney system.

BagJourney allows Aeroflot to accurately track passengers’ bags at key points along their journey, including at check-in, loading onto the aircraft, transfer and arrival at the destination airport. BagJourney provides a precise picture of a bag’s location. It uses baggage data from 400-plus airports and 500 airlines that passes through SITA’s global, fully-managed baggage message and distribution service, BagMessage. This makes it possible for the airline to keep passengers informed about the status of their baggage or to quickly trace a bag if it does go missing. Aeroflot’s employees will also be able to provide customers with complete information on their baggage.

Kirill Bogdanov, Deputy CEO for IT at Aeroflot, said: “Baggage tracking is just the latest example of how Aeroflot is focusing on technology innovations that improve the customer experience. We recognize that baggage is such an important area for passengers, and through this solution we will be able to provide them with more certainty on where their bags are at every step of the journey.”

Dmitry Krasnov, SITA VP Russia and CIS, said: “Aeroflot has a great track record of embracing technology to enhance the passenger experience. With SITA’s BagJourney, the airline can permanently track bags, reducing the likelihood of a bag being mishandled in the first place. This will have a tremendously positive impact for passengers while making the airline’s baggage operation far more efficient and significantly reducing the number of mishandled bags.”

According to SITA’s 2017 Baggage Report, the rate of mishandled bags in 2016 was at a record-low of 5.73 bags per thousand passengers, down from a peak of 18.88 bags per thousand passengers in 2007. This improvement has been directly attributed to the use of technology to more efficiently and accurately manage baggage. The rate is set to improve even further thanks to the International Air Transport Association’s (IATA) Resolution 753’s requirement for comprehensive baggage tracking which comes into effect in June 2018.

SITA’s BagJourney can become the core platform of a ready-to-go solution for airlines looking for a cost-effective way of providing the tracking data to their passengers or fulfilling IATA Resolution 753.