Passengers will be able to track their luggage in real time

One of the most frustrating situations faced by air passengers is mishandled or lost baggage. Whether a long-anticipated vacation or important business trip, missing baggage puts an annoying crimp in any travel plans.

But a whole-journey luggage tracking system may put an end to the lost or delayed baggage, which cost airlines across the globe billions of dollars each year and pose security risks.

China has recently kicked off a pilot program for the luggage tracking system on three air routes between six major airports -- Beijing Capital, Beijing Daxing, Shanghai Hongqiao, Guangzhou Baiyun, Shenzhen Bao'an and Chongqing Jiangbei airports, according to the Civil Aviation Administration of China.

The system makes it possible for passengers to track the real-time status of their luggage on a mobile app through technology using electromagnetic fields to automatically identify and track the radio-frequency identification tags attached to each luggage, said Beijing Capital International Airport.

The information about the luggage, including its geographic location, is electronically stored in the tags and will be updated at six key points in the journey -- check-in, security check, sorting, truck loading, aircraft loading and luggage arrival, according to the airport.

Lyu Erxue, deputy head of the administration, said that quite a few of complaints of air passengers concern the mishandling or the missing of their luggage. The adoption of the whole-journey luggage tracking system will thus address their most concerned issue and is of great importance to the Chinese civil aviation industry in enhancing its service to passengers.

By the end of 2021, passengers flying domestic routes between mega civil airports with an annual passenger throughput over 10 million trips will be capable of tracking their luggage during their whole journey, he said, adding that it will be promoted on all domestic routes by 2025 and starts trials on international routes.

The latest statistics from the Civil Aviation Administration of China show that the nation had 238 civil airports by the end of 2019, including 39 each with annual throughput exceeding 10 million passengers.