The holiday’s not off to a good start. It’s every traveller’s nightmare.

You’re experiencing one of the most unpleasant aspects of air travel… baggage mishandling.

The good news is that in 2008, the great majority of the airline industry’s 32.8 million mishandled bags were reunited with their owners in less than 48 hours, and only a small fraction, 0.32 bags per thousand passengers, or 736,000 bags, failed to show up at all.

The statistics from SITA, the world’s leading specialist in air transport communication and IT solutions show that the number of mishandled bags (checked baggage that has been delayed, damaged or pilfered) fell by over a fifth last year, from 42.4 million to 32.8 million.

The number of bags lost or stolen also dropped from 1.28 million to 736,000.

That’s not much comfort if your favourite swimsuit’s in the lost bag, and you’re dying for that first swim in the hotel pool or along Kalim Beach. However, statistically it’s heading in the right direction.

You may well ask why your bag did not arrive with you. Here are the main reasons: failure to load, 16%; ticketing error, 13%; arrival station mishandling, 8%; airport restriction, 6%; loading or offloading error, 5% or tagging error, 3%.

The single biggest problem occurs when bags are transferred from one aircraft to another, although the incidence of this has fallen steadily from 61% in 2005, to 49% in 2008.

Airlines are taking a variety of measures to further improve baggage handling. These include action by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) which represents 230 airlines, or 93% of all scheduled airlines. They’ve implemented a baggage improvement programme with more than 180 airlines, which is already having dramatic results. The practise of door-to-door baggage handling and off-airport check-in is growing amongst airlines.

IATA estimates that the problem costs airlines USD3.8 billion a year and affects 42 million passengers.

So while it’s very, very annoying, when your baggage does eventually turns up, you may be slightly comforted by reflecting that you’re one of 42 million and that the overall situation is improving.

By Alastair Carthew, a Phuket based writer and communications advisor.
Email: alastaircarthew@gmail.com