Source: SITA

 

  • The new solution reduces management costs by 90% and also significantly reduces recovery time

 

SITA launched the WorldTracer Lost and Found Property, an AI-enabled solution that solves a million dollar problem for the airport industry: how to quickly return forgotten items on airplanes or airports to their respective owners.

 

Every year, passengers leave millions of items like wallets, purses and phones on airplanes and airports, costing the industry millions of dollars in recovery costs. It can cost up to $95 to manage and recover each lost item, including registration, handling customer calls and inquiries, warehousing and postage.

 

The Lost and Found Property applies SITA’s WorldTracer solution is already used by most of the world’s airlines at 2,200 airports. Airline employees can record a found item, create a report, and validate correspondence in less than two minutes. The solution also dramatically speeds up the time it takes to find and return found items, with 60% of them returned within the first 48 hours. Through the new feature, the cost of recovering lost items is reduced by 90%.

 

Manipulation of lost effects today is still generally done manually. Multiple stakeholders are involved and often the airline does not have control or visibility of the entire process. The time required to combine an item with the report further complicates this process. Passengers can now file a claim using their mobile device in seconds to report, pay and organize recovery, as well as keep track of their belongings at each stage.

 

Using state-of-the-art technology such as Machine Vision, machine learning, and natural language processing, WorldTracer Lost and Found Property searches a global database of images and descriptions to match the found item with a missing item report. The solution uses image recognition to identify details such as the brand, material, and color of the missing item. It also recognizes similar words in the description to identify a definite match.

 

The airline can then immediately notify the owner and return the item. The passenger and airline have full visibility of the process through the WorldTracer portal, no matter where the item was lost in the world, a feature that should significantly improve passenger satisfaction.

 

David Lavorel, CEO of SITA at Airports & Borders, said: “WorldTracer is a great example of how SITA continues to evolve its portfolio to meet new industry demands. For nearly three decades, WorldTracer has successfully helped track down lost luggage. Now, by using the new technology, we are adding more value, helping the industry to be more efficient and reduce costs related to lost and found”.

 

About WorldTracer

WorldTracer Lost and Found is the latest option for SITA’s WorldTracer service, used by more than 500 customers at 2,200 airports around the world to track lost luggage. Because it is a multilingual and prepaid system, it offers airlines the option of recovering passenger handling costs. This new lost and found management solution is easy to use for passengers, airlines and ground operators alike.

 

SITA also recently launched WorldTracer Self-Service, a comprehensive, non-contact way for passengers to report delayed baggage to airlines from their mobile devices, avoiding long lines at counters or service offices. This solution complements SITA’s end-to-end service throughout the baggage journey, along with the Baggage Delivery Service, which enables carriers and airlines to track baggage from the airport to the passenger’s final destination.