RFID Baggage Tracking

The International Air Transportation Association (IATA) chose one partner when it decided to scale up its RFID baggage improvement programme (BIP) initiative. After an extensive vendor evaluation they chose ODIN. IATA’s data have shown that a single lost bag can cost an airline almost $100, and the total annual cost is over $14 Billion. An RFID-enabled baggage tracking system can ease many of the pains that airports around the globe face – from selecting bags that may have changed their final destination en route, to eliminating huge cost and environmental waste from printing up billions of baggage labels. In the United States leading airports are applying for stimulus funds to install RFID infrastructure, and then using the RFID network as a revenue stream to sell usage and data to the airlines. This is particularly effective in a hub and spoke model addressing baggage transfer.

The choice of an RFID tag for a baggage tracking system has the biggest impact on both cost and performance. With more than three dozen types of tags the right choice for an RFID inlay must take into account everything from orientation sensitivity and antenna design to cost and global frequency performance. That's why ODIN released the RFID for Baggage Tracking Benchmark in November 2009.

The future of baggage tracking is moving rapidly toward RFID, and it is only a matter of time before paper tags are completely eliminated in favor of permanent or semi-permanent RFID tags. The sooner an airport authority or airlines understands the pitfalls and benefits of an RFID baggage tracking system the sooner they will gain benefit, including a new revenue stream and being a more attractive location for international transfers.

Airports looking to adopt an RFID baggage tracking system will have the following benefits:

• Reduced operating expense (generally a 12-14% reduction in baggage related OpEx)
• Less errors in re-routed baggage and international transfers (up to a 5x
  error reduction)
• Increased revenue from international operations as RFID tagging is a competitive differentiator for airports
• Friendlier environmental strategy as RFID tags can be reused and make paper tags obsolete

Everyone is talking “Green” lately and airlines are no exception. With today’s volume of baggage tags the waste is astronomical. According to IATA if every bag tag printed was laid end to end around the equator, a year’s worth of baggage tags would circle the globe three times. The day will arrive soon when luggage will have permanent or semi-permanent RFID tags affixed to them and registered with frequent flyer programs.

The ODIN baggage tracking solution starts as low as $100,000 for a single location, and can scale up to integrate seamlessly with entire automated systems. We’ve learned the tough lessons that will reduce your risk and increase the return on investment. We are also partnered with the world’s largest baggage handling systems and airport technology providers such as Siemens, SITA, Rockwell Automation and IBM.

Leading airport operations and technology teams realize that RFID is such a unique field that expertise, experience and specialization are a must. They also value ODIN’s vendor neutral approach and deep Benchmarking capability. There is no one hardware that is best for everyone; the right printer, the optimal antennas, the right reader configuration all can save hundreds of thousands of dollars in operating costs and increase read success to over 99.9%. Only ODIN has repeatedly demonstrated this capability on a global scale focusing on only RFID.

ODIN also has a municipality leasing program for airport authorities. Since many airlines are likely to be the users of RFID data the system stands to be a potential revenue stream for airports. The challenge is getting over the initial cost of deployment. Rather that spend $1-2 million for a full production system, ODIN has a program backed by GE Finance that allows municipalities to pay quarterly for use of an installed RFID network. The airport authority can then sell the data back to their airline customers. Contact one of the aerospace experts at ODIN for more information.