NEWS
Heathrow Airport is to trial RFID technology to track luggage as it moves around the airport as it aims to reduce the amount of bags that get lost in the system.
Heathrow will become the largest airport in Europe to trial the tech for this purpose when the pilot begins in September.
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The British Airport Authority (BAA) will install the infrastructure on selected check-in desks around the airport.
Bags will be fitted with RFID tags when they are checked in before being scanned as they enter the baggage system.
BAA will use the trial to see how the system compares to the current system of barcode scanning in terms of keeping track of bags.
A BAA spokeswoman said: "This trial will allow us to compare the success rate of RFID technology against our existing system. We will then examine that insight to understand the benefits it offers."
Comments
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1. Tim Jackson
I'm glad to see a pilot is coming to Heathrow. Maybe he'll also have a plane, and he'll take some of the bags to their destination.
2. Roger Huffadine
If I had got out of bed earlier - I would have posted the same comment as Tim. Stuff the technology - move the bags - RFID is only a Barcode that you cant see with the naked eye, at least with Barcodes you can see when it has been damaged and deduce the original information content. I guess we will end up with text, barcode & RFID on bags.
3. Iain Benger-Stevenson
Flight delays seem to be getting worse!
September? Wow!
4. David Dingley
Wonderful - yet another pilot project on RFID. The tiny problem in this is that many of the "lost" bags at Heathrow are lost whilst moving between flights.
In other words, they did not start out life at Heathrow and therefore won't have an RFID tag on them - and so the they will be excluded from the pilot scheme.
That is not to say RFID won't happen eventually, and serious studies are to be welcomed. But the international and integrated nature of air travel means that until many airports and many airlines use a common RFID benefits are bound to be limited - and barcode has to be there two, so duplicated infrastructure.
A close parallel with electronic ticketing - and that has taken over 10 years to become pervasive. It's meant to be at 100% worldwide by y/e 2007 - it will be close, but probably not there.
Don't hold your breath waiting for perfect luggage delivery. Even knowing where it is may not mean it makes the connection anyhow!