Airlines Embrace Do-It-Yourself Bag Handling

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Jack Nicas and Tarun Shukla, Airlines Embrace Do-It-Yourself Bag Handling. Wall Street Journal, July 6, 2015.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/bag-tags-1435340070

Quote:

“More than a third of global airlines now ask fliers to tag their own bags [with home-printed bag tags], compared with 13% in 2009, according to SITA, an airline-technology firm. et agents. “If something goes wrong or I have a question, the self-tagging machine isn’t going to have an answer,” he said.

“From 2004 to 2014, a period in which airlines added many self-service technologies like kiosks, the number of US ticket agents fell about 13.5% to roughly 138,000, according to federal estimates. US airline passengers increased 8.6% to 761 million over that period.

“The biggest of the coming changes is permanent bag tags, electronic [read: not paper] devices that strap on to frequent fliers’ luggage and digitally display their flight information. The tags display bar codes like a traditional tag, allowing them to work with existing infrastructure. Fliers update the tags via Bluetooth from their smartphones, and the airline can also remotely update the tag if its owner gets rerouted.

“Air France KLM is also releasing a bag tracker that goes inside [not outside] luggage. The device uses satellite data to give travelers the bag’s location and light [光線] sensors to alert them if the bag is opened en route.

“In Europe and elsewhere, carriers use fully automated machines to accept passenger-tagged bags, meaning travelers don’t have to interact with airline employees.

“In the US, airlines still must staff bag-drop stations because security rules require employees to check identifications of passengers checking bags.  Airlines for America said it is lobbying the TSA to allow a biometric identification check, such as facial-recognition software or fingerprint readers, to remove humans from the process. The TSA said it ‘does not currently envision changes to bag security requirements.’