Lost Luggage Facts
Every year SITA, a world leader in the Aviation information and systems industry, publish a report about airline baggage.
Here are a few highlights from the latest report:
- Last year, airlines carried more than 5+ billion passengers.
- Around 80% of passengers checked in one or more bags.
- 33+ million bags were delayed, damaged, lost or stolen.
- That’s an average of 1-2 bags per flight .
- About 50% of the problems occur during transfers at airports.
- Around 2.5 million bags were never returned.
- This costs airlines over $2 billion to manage or correct.
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What happens to unclaimed lost luggage? It goes to auction or it is destroyed!
In America, nearly every airport has its own auction house! The Unclaimed Baggage Centre in Alabama receives 800,000 visitors per year and is, incredibly, the state’s biggest tourist attraction.
In Australia, Sydney Airport holds an annual charity lost property auction when thousands of items go under the hammer – In May 2024, their auction raised a record AU$267,000 for charity, AU$1.9 million raised since 2013.
In the UK, Heathrow, Gatwick, Luton, Stansted, Manchester and Glasgow Airports all use Auction Houses to sell unclaimed lost luggage.
In Germany, Frankfurt airport auctions off lost luggage after 3 months.
Amsterdam Netherlands Schiphol Airport – The auction-house “De Eland” in Diemen has hosted past lost baggage auctions. Every three months or so, all the lost and unclaimed baggage that Schiphol has collected gets sent to this one auction-house.