The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on the 9th that luggage loss is increasing one after another as demand for air travel is soaring around the world.
According to reports, on the 20th of last month (local time), thousands of suitcases were piled up and left at the airport after a technical defect occurred in a conveyor belt carrying luggage at London’s Heathrow Airport.
Air France announced on the 2nd that the arrival of 17,000 pieces of luggage was delayed due to poor management of the luggage after an employee went on strike at Charles de Gaulle Airport in France.
Peter Drummond, head of SITA, a Swiss technology company that tracks baggage, said, “The global baggage loss rate in June far surpassed the 2019 level before the spread of COVID-19.”
He added that “on international and transit flights, the probability of losing your luggage is six times higher than on direct flights.”
Reports of lost baggage have surged over the past two months, according to Blue Ribbon Bags, an American company that tracks and retrieves baggage if it is lost by paying $5 before boarding.
CEO Gabriel Menkin said, “Recently, 10 out of 1,000 pieces of luggage were reported lost or delayed.
In the aftermath of COVID-19, the airline industry reduced the number of employees, but recently the travel restrictions were lifted, and air demand surged.
A spokesperson for Swissport International, a luggage transport company, said, “Before COVID-19, the number of employees had reached 65 thousand, but as of the end of December last year, the number had decreased to 45 thousand.”
Currently, Swissport International is pouring out carrots, such as paying $5,000 (about 6.5 million won) to new employees at some airports in the United States.
However, the number of manpower to be put into the field is not expected to increase rapidly.
“It takes only two weeks to hire and train a new employee, but it takes an average of 65 days for an employee to get the security clearance they need to actually work, and can take up to 90 days,” said Philippe Joynig, chief executive officer of luggage company Menzies Airlines. It can take,” he said.