Virgin Australia aims to reduce mishandled bags with new baggage tracking app

Passengers flying Brisbane to Sydney will be able to track their bags via an app and get notifications along the way, in a first for an Australian airline.

Air New Zealand is aiming to put an end to lost luggage with new baggage tracking technology for passengers.

Virgin Australia will become the country’s first airline to offer baggage tracking for passengers, in an effort to make lost luggage a thing of the past.

Initially the service will be trialled on Brisbane-Sydney flights with passengers required to upload the Virgin Australia app to keep tabs on their checked bags.

The app would then send a notification that Virgin Australia had successfully received their luggage after check-in, and another message when the bags arrived at their destination.

“For 23 years, Virgin Australia has consistently innovated and the introduction of bag tracking capabilities is another instalment of our award-winning product offering,” said an airline spokesman.

By mid-year, bag tracking capabilities are expected to be reality on all flights between Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth and the Gold Coast, with regional services to follow.

Qantas was also looking at introducing “further baggage initiatives in the current months” although a spokeswoman pointed out that mishandled luggage rates were now lower than pre-Covid-19 levels.

Virgin’s move came as Air New Zealand expanded its own baggage tracking service to international flights, allowing passengers to ensure their luggage was making the same trip.

Piloted for domestic travellers in April, Air New Zealand is now ready to test the feature among 5 per cent of app users on services to Australia and the Pacific Islands.

The Air New Zealand phone app, which will allow customers to track their bags on international flights. Picture: Supplied

An airline spokeswoman said the tracking worked by retrieving the last recorded scan point of the physical paper tag attached to the bag during check-in and bag drop.

“All baggage is scanned at multiple points throughout the journey as it is processed by back-of-house teams and baggage handlers,” she said.

The airline’s chief digital officer Nikhil Ravishankar said baggage tracking showed Air New Zealand’s commitment to delivering customer focused innovations.

“Updates to our app last year mean we are now able to be more adaptable when it comes to creating and adding digital solutions that solve pain points for customers,” said Mr Ravishankar.

“Customers can track the journey of their bag and receive guidance on what to do if their bag has taken a detour. In an upcoming release, customers will also be able to report and monitor mishandled baggage via the app.”

Baggage tracking by airlines is not new, with US carrier Delta introducing the measure in 2011. Since then, United and American Airlines have followed suit, butt the service is less common outside the US.

Mr Ravishankar said baggage tracking helped put information directly into the hands of travellers, and relieved pressure on airline teams.

Lost and mishandled bags increased dramatically last year as travel ramped up at a much faster rate than aviation workforces could handle.

In Australia, Qantas’s mishandled baggage rate soared from about four in every 1000 to 12 in every 1000, and many travellers invested in “air tags” in an effort to keep tabs on their bags.

Originally published as Virgin Australia aims to reduce mishandled bags with new baggage tracking app