Inside Out | When it comes to airports and baggage handling, Asia is miles ahead of the rest of the world
- The world’s airlines mislaid only 24.8 million bags last year, which is still 24.8 million too many. Fortunately, in Asia, with its modern airports, the mishandling rate is significantly lower than in Europe
Just at the most exhausting point in the journey, with the unfriendly prospects still ahead of immigration harassment and a long wearisome train or taxi ride through an unfamiliar city to a bland hotel, a black hole opens and swallows you whole. There will be no avoiding the traipsing through dingy corridors and filling of mind-numbing forms, with nothing but the clothes you are standing in. Not even a toothbrush. At that point you don’t even think about the painful months ahead of trying to get compensated.
So, with a long journey to Britain imminent, and the packing still to be done, I read with mixed emotions last week’s good news from air transport technology specialist SITA that the world’s airlines mislaid just 24.8 million bags last year.
Yes, just 24.8 million – because back in 2007, they were mishandling 46.9 million bags a year, and in the past decade the number of people flying has almost doubled.
