Aeroflot is the first airline in Russia to provide real-time location information for all the baggage it handles.
Russia’s flag carrier can now accurately track passengers’ bags at key points along their journey, including at check-in, loading onto the aircraft, transfer and arrival at the destination airport.
This makes it possible for Aeroflot to keep passengers informed about the status of their baggage or to quickly trace a bag if it goes missing.
Aeroflot says its employees will also be able to provide passengers with complete information on their baggage.
IATA Resolution 753
The reason that Aeroflot are implementing this process is that IATA, the airline industry’s trade association, has ruled that all its member airlines introduce comprehensive baggage tracking by June 2018.
The requirement is called IATA Resolution 753 and is intended to encourage airlines to further reduce mishandling by implementing cross-industry tracking for every baggage journey.
According to Resolution 753, airlines must track baggage at four key points in the baggage journey as follows:
- Passenger handover to airline
- Loading to the aircraft
- Deliver to the transfer area
- Return to the passenger
SITA BagJourney
Aeroflot uses SITA, an IT supplier, to deliver its end-to-end baggage tracking solution called BagJourney.
It uses baggage data from 400-plus airports and 500 airlines that passes through SITA’s baggage message and distribution service, BagMessage.
Kirill Bogdanov, Deputy CEO for IT at Aeroflot:
“Baggage tracking is just the latest example of how Aeroflot is focusing on technology innovations that improve the customer experience. We recognize that baggage is such an important area for passengers, and through this solution we will be able to provide them with more certainty on where their bags are at every step of the journey.”
About Aeroflot
Aeroflot is Russia’s flagship carrier and is based in Moscow, at Sheremetyevo International Airport.
Routes: Aeroflot and its partners serve 1,074 destinations in 177 countries worldwide.
Fleet: 220 passenger aircraft ( on 01/12/2017), including:
- 22 Airbus A330
- 75 Airbus A320
- 38 Airbus A321
- 35 Boeing 737
- 16 Boeing 777
- 34 SSJ-100
Numbers: In 2016, Aeroflot carried 29 million passengers (43.4 million passengers as Aeroflot Group including subsidiaries).
Alliance: Skyteam
N.B. Image credit: Aeroflot