Airplanes, 24 million pieces of luggage lost or damaged worldwide last year

In 2025 are 5 billion passengers who used aircraft globally, 24 million bags they were handled incorrectly. However, the rate of lost, late or damaged baggage dropped by 23%a sign that digital transformation efforts are starting to yield results. This is noted by the Sita Baggage IT Insights Report 2026the twentieth edition of the annual report, a point of reference for the sector. Despite the improvement, therefore, the margin of inefficiency that remains and the incorrect handling of baggage still costs the sector 6.3 billion dollars per year.

Each piece of baggage – we read in the dossier – involves an average cost of $260. With an average net profit of just $8 per passengera single mishandled bag negates the profit generated by more than 30 seats soldwhile five bags wipe out the profit of an entire flight.

Volume growth and digital transformation

Passenger volumes are growing faster than the infrastructure designed to handle them. The rate of mishandled bags has decreased by almost three quarters compared to 2007. What changed in 2025 was not a single technology, but the way systems are interconnected: real-time data sharing, routing via IAbiometric bag drop and connected passenger devices.

Evolution of the baggage service

“Baggage handling is going from being a logistical problem to becoming a digital service“, said Nicole Hogg, Portfolio Director Baggage at Sita. “Passengers – she continued – expect to know where their luggage is at all times, and are increasingly willing to help us track it. The next phase is to apply the technology we already have to every transfer, for every handler and at every airport, offering greater traceability and connecting every step of the journey. This is how the industry ensures the trust that passengers expect today.”

Results of new technologies

Field results confirm the effectiveness of the formula. The integration of Find My di Apple con SITA WorldTracer has reduced by 90% cases of definitive loss of luggage in the first year of use and has speeded up the 26% the recovery of baggage delivered late. Additionally, Sita recently integrated the feature into WorldTracer Find Hub by Google for sharing the location of objects. Thanks to the use of Auto Reflight by SITA, Thai Airways reduced a three-minute task to just one second per bag at nine airports.

Operational efficiency and cost management

David Lavorel, CEO of Sita, said: “Airports find themselves operating closer to their maximum capacity every year, and the solution is not always to build new infrastructure. Thanks to data,artificial intelligence and predictive operations – he underlined – we can make better use of the existing structures at every stage of the airport journey: from check-in to security checks, from the gates to the aircraft handling areas, up to the baggage area. The luggage compartment itself proves that this model works. Solutions like Total Airport Management they apply the same approach to the entire operational cycle of the airport, allowing traffic growth to be managed without increasing the extent of the infrastructure and its impact”.

Areas for improvement

The report highlights areas for future improvement. Baggage delivered late represents approximately 70% of the total cost, mainly due to the operational activities necessary for recovery, rerouting and delivery. In the case of lost or damaged baggage, up to 70% of the costs is instead linked to compensation. Transfers continue to be the main cause of baggage handling disruptions, equal to 39% of cases occurred in 2025, down from 41% the previous year.

Investments and future prospects

The trajectory is clear. Three out of four airlines plan to invest inartificial intelligence in the next two years. Half intend to offer passengers real-time baggage updates. The baggage tracking system introduced by Here is Resolution 753 has now passed the threshold of 50% of adoption globally, with full compliance expected to be achieved by 2027. The next horizon is already on the take-off runway: label the luggage from home, leave it directly in the car and allow it to travel separately from the passenger.