Skift Take
More airline debacles and their resulting luggage delays are almost a guarantee. While a full revamp of the baggage handling system is far away, industry leaders are trying to piece together tech solutions to help in the meantime.
Thousands of people who checked in their bags with Southwest Airlines late last year did not see them again for nearly a month.
After a storm of issues led to the airline canceling thousands of flights in late December, the majority of bags were not returned to their owners until late January, a worst case scenario for travelers uneasy about checking bags on a flight.
The luggage was instead piled in heaps at airports, their photos circulating with headlines that dominated travel news for days.
Similar incidents occurred the previous summer, and more are bound to happen again without intervention. The number of airline passengers is expected to soon surpass 2019 levels, and experts question whether the existing infrastructure will be sufficient, especially because investment took a pause during the pandemic.
“I would say disruptions in the system are going to become, unfortunately, more pronounced,” said Darin Juby
Photo Credit: Unless many factors improve, including technology, flyers can expect more disasters when it comes to lost or delayed baggage. Midjourney