Forty-five per cent of the luggage lost by airlines occurs during stopovers
According to a study carried out by the online travel agency Destina, 45% of the luggage lost when checked in on flights disappears during stopovers.
For every thousand passengers, people complained about 7.8 bags in Europe in 2015. This figure drops to 6.5 in global terms, meaning 23 million bags that were checked in had some kind of problem.
In North America, this number drops to 3.2, and in Asia, people only complained about two suitcases for every thousand passengers. Seventy-nine per cent of these bags were delayed, 15% were damaged or had things removed, and 6% were lost or stolen. On average, passengers had to wait almost two days (42 hours) to recover their lost luggage. In 45% of the cases, the bag didn’t arrive at the correct destination because of incorrect handling during the stopover, 19% were due to some error when issuing the ticket, changing the bag, or security and 16% were because they didn’t load it.
Destina offers several interesting tips, including the use of digital labels, avoiding checking in your bags if you are going to be making a stopover, and if your bag is lost you should claim directly at the airport.
