Fed II Star - February 19, 2006

REAL LIFE NEWS: YOUR LUGGAGE IS IN ANTARES

Recent numbers show that American airlines lost 10,000 bags every day during 2005. That's more than 3.5 million during the year - an increase of 23% from the previous year's losses. The worst performance came from US Airways, which exited Chapter 11 bankruptcy last year, and had the highest lost-bag rate of all: 9.62 complaints per 1,000 passengers, an increase of 81% on its previous year.

The best performance was by Continental Airlines, with only lost 4.12 bags per 1,000 passengers. But even this was a 15% increase from the previous year. All the companies did a lot worse than in 2004.

Amongst the reasons for this appalling loss rate are a big increase in the number of passengers, airline budget cuts, backed-up flights and tighter inspections of luggage. Most of these lost bags do find their way back to the owners, eventually.

Although 10,000 bags lost every day seems like a huge, huge amount, the story from which I took all this information did not say how many passengers fly each day in total. But if you look at the complaints per thousand figures for the worst performer you can put the figures in perspective. 9.62 losses per 1,000 passengers means a loss rate of 0.962% - just a little less than 1 bag in 100. Not that I want to defend the airlines at all, because if you assume an average of 500 passengers on each flight, that would mean five people on every single plane would have a bag go missing. And you wondered why the overhead compartments in the planes are always over-flowing; with stats like these, no wonder nobody wants to check their bags!