Airlines around the world vary in their organizational skills – and while some are quite sloppy with their passengers and their belongings, others pride themselves on not having lost a single bag in years.
In the U.S., the Bureau of Transportation Statistics reports that about 3 million pieces of luggage are misplaced on domestic flights alone each year.
With hundreds of millions of bags that must pass through the hands of employees, loss seems inevitable. Yet one busy airport in Japan claims to have never lost a single suitcase in three decades of operation.
Kansai International Airport, near Osaka, opened in 1994 to relieve the overcrowded Osaka Airport and has since welcomed millions of passengers each year.
Kansai’s staff pride themselves on their efficiency in handling passengers’ luggage and the numerous accolades they have received for it.
As the seventh-busiest airport in Japan, Kansai handles between 20 and 30 million passengers a year, so its record is truly remarkable.
The secret lies in an extremely well-organized system that involves arranging passengers’ luggage in a way that prevents damage and also makes it easier to count multiple times. Employees constantly check whether the number of bags on arrival matches the number of those checked in on departure. If something is missing, they immediately start searching for it – either in the cargo hold of the plane or in the security screening room.
The goal is not only to prevent lost luggage, but also to deliver all bags to the claim line within 15 minutes of the plane landing. The staff pride themselves on making passengers happy and motivated to return again, providing top-notch service.
Unfortunately, Kansai may not be able to maintain its incredible record for much longer – simply because it may no longer be there in a few decades. Built on two artificial islands in Osaka Bay, the airport has been sinking since it opened. Engineers did not expect the rapid rate of deterioration. Despite the sea wall that protects it from flooding, it could be unusable by 2056.
