US AIRWAYS CASE STUDY BOSTON LOGAN INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT ( BOS)
←
→
Page content transcription
If your browser does not render page correctly, please read the page content below
BAGGAGE IMPROVEMENT
PROGRAM
US AIRWAYS CASE STUDY
BOSTON LOGAN
INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT (BOS)
November 2010, Authors:
Joanne Hendry, US Airways
Phil Ryan, US Airways
Nicolas Bondarenco, IATA
www.iata.org/bip 1/8 IATA Simplifying the Business
Baggage Improvement Program (BIP) at Boston Logan
International Airport: Reducing mishandling by 30%
The Setting
Boston Logan International
Airport offers nonstop service
to more than 71 domestic and
32 international destinations.
US Airways and our Express
partners operate 100 daily
flights from BOS. Mainline
services the carrier’s hubs of
CLT, PHL, and PHX as well
as hourly US Airways Shuttle
service to LGA and DCA.
Express operations cover 11
destinations in the Northeast.
The BIP team spent five days at the airport, from 26-30 October 2009, reviewing baggage
processes and infrastructure. The team identified solutions offered in the BIP toolkit and other
specific solutions that could be applied to reduce baggage mishandling at Boston Airport.
Our findings
The BIP team identified and proposed 19 solutions during the visit, of which 16 were selected by US
Airways for implementation. In this document a selection of solutions will be presented in more
detail:
¸ Train check-in agents to rigorously apply cut-off time rules for baggage acceptance at
check-in and ensure airline acceptance times are respected in case of passenger rerouting
¸ Use of a baggage reconciliation system
¸ Control of the delivery of local baggage
¸ Reinforce communications for international transfer passengers
¸ Reinforce the role of collaboration between airlines and all stakeholders involved to better
manage interlining
As I got to work the other day and opened up my e-mail I learned that US Airways has for the
third month in a row scored number one among the “Big Five” hub-and-spoke network
airlines in baggage performance in the US Department of Transportation, Mishandled
Baggage September report. I am extremely proud that Boston has played a large part in
leading the company to reduce the number of bags lost out of our particular station, said
Joanne Hendry. It was my honor to be involved and work with Nicolas Bondarenco, IATA on
the Boston BIP case study. Boston was able to take the observations and advice in this
report and put it to practical use. This resulted in a 30% reduction of mishandled bags out of
Boston. If you subscribe to the trickle down theory that means less money spent
on mishandled bags and also less complaints from passengers. Our Goal Happy
Customers!"
www.iata.org/bip 2/8 IATA Simplifying the Business
Solutions Used
More detailed information will be provided in the following on three solutions as they can be applied
across the industry. These solutions highlight the importance of having a track & trace solution in
place to manage baggage performance better:
1. Reinforcing the role of check-in agents
Problem description
¸ There are many reasons for baggage mishandling at check-in level. The most common are:
o Passenger checked-in late
o Baggage was not put in a tub and was not correctly sorted in the system
o Tagging error with a group of people
o Late delivery from curb-side to inject belt (for shuttle flights in Boston), etc.
Solution details
¸ Ticket counter agents are advised about the half hour cut-off time for domestic flights and
one hour cut-off time for international flights.
¸ In cases where a passenger is late but needs to get on the flight, specifically for the last
flight to certain destinations, the ticket counter agents have to communicate to the bag room
lead (make-up area). This way staff will be standing by for the arrival of the bag at the
carousel and deliver it immediately to the flight.
¸ Offer a tour of the bag room to ticket counter supervisors and ticket counter agents to
explain how a baggage system works and how baggage is delivered and sorted.
¸ Another option could be to use the oversize baggage belt to baggage to the make-up area
very quickly: Such bags are usually immediately screened and the belt has a more direct
path to the bag room than other belts.
¸ Ticket counter agents are advised to “AT&T’’ the passenger: Ask and Tell and Tag. In other
words, ask the passenger’s name, tell the destination and then tag the bag correctly. Signs
are posted to remind agents of this process.
The check-in step is usually the first step in baggage process activities. This is also where
issues can occur and be avoided. Check-in agents need to be fully informed and trained
about the consequences that mistakes have on baggage performance. This can be done by
training them on a regular basis. In collaboration with the bag room leader, check-in
managers can hold regular briefing sessions with agents on baggage performance and
identified issues. For instance, in Boston, US Airways has a weekly meeting with key
personnel involved in baggage activities (check-in, make-up area, gate, loss & found (BSO),
transfer).
Main benefits
• The number of bags left behind was considerably reduced.
• The bag room tour has been very beneficial to helping the agents understand the
complexity of the baggage handling environment, constraints, challenges and the
impact of not following procedures. Ticket counter agents realized the importance of not
checking-in passengers late or if they do check in late to communicate this immediately
to the bag room and use tubs for specific baggage types.
www.iata.org/bip 3/8 IATA Simplifying the Business2. Using a Baggage Tracking System
Problem description
Many airports face the problem of incorrectly sorted baggage. Common errors are that
transfer bags end-up with local bags or bags end up on the wrong flight, this is known as a
“mixed bag’’.
Another common error occurs during the aircraft unloading process: ‘’through bags’’ are
mistakenly unloaded and mixed with the local arriving bags. A through bag is a bag that
should stay in the aircraft hold and only be unloaded at the next destination.
Solution details
The use of handheld scanners drastically reduces the amount of mixed bag errors. The only
way to know what has been loaded where onto an aircraft is to record the loading process.
The baggage scanning system records baggage loaded on the aircraft and notifies the
loader if the bag loaded should not be on the aircraft. Such tracking prevents the loading of
bags to wrong aircrafts or wrong destinations. It also provides key information about the
number of bags already loaded and still to be loaded. In addition, another functionality
provides information on the bag itself (local or transfer).
The principle is the same for the unloading process: all unloaded bags are scanned and the
handheld scanner vibrates and rings, preventing the unloading of a “through bag’’.
Main benefits
Manual errors are eliminated, another opportunity to reduce mishandling. For US Airways,
the use of such a technology solution has shown significant improvements in Boston. US
Airways is working on further functionality developments. Scanning bags also provides
tracking and baggage data history for further baggage performance analysis.
www.iata.org/bip 4/8 IATA Simplifying the Business3. Managing the re-routing of passengers and their bags
Problem description
The re-route procedure is not always followed. This occurs in many airports around the
world and all airlines face this common type of issue.
General common issues in the world are:
¸ A check-in agent at the transfer desk or at the gate does not take into account the minimum
acceptance time required to reroute a passenger and his bags, resulting in bags left behind.
¸ Agents do not check whether the passenger checked-in bags at the point of origin: if the
passenger has not checked-in bags, he can be rerouted even when this infringes the
minimum acceptance time required for handling bags.
¸ The information is not always communicated or not communicated in time to the make-up
area.
¸ A kiosk machine can be used to reroute a passenger but in such cases it is essential that
the application sends the correct baggage messages to instruct the baggage system to re-
process the baggage and also notifies the baggage handling staff that the bag must be
located and processed.
In Boston, the main issues were:
¸ Agents at the gate did not necessarily take into account the minimum acceptance time
required to physically reroute bags.
¸ The message for rerouting a passenger was not always sent to the bag room (make-up
area), and bags could not be handled and loaded with the passenger.
Solution details
¸ Agents have been trained to keep in mind the minimum acceptance time for passengers
with checked-in bags.
¸ Agents have been briefed on using the reroute mask functionality to send the message
automatically to the make-up area. They have also been briefed on how to fill out the
reroute mask information correctly to ensure handlers in the make-up area can retrieve the
bags and deliver them to the same flight as the passenger.
¸ US Airways is working on a new concept which foresees eliminating the manual task of
filling out the reroute mask performed by the agent at the gate or any point where the
passenger is rerouted. Information will be sent automatically to the make-up area when any
change to the passenger PNR is made.
Main benefits
The information will always be communicated to the baggage area. This was not
necessarily the case before.
Passenger and their bags travel together, reducing mishandlings.
www.iata.org/bip 5/8 IATA Simplifying the Business4. Managing the delivery of local bags
Problem description
Some local inbound bags are in Boston but have not been delivered either on time or at all
to the arrival carousel and the passenger requests that the airline opens a claim.
The main reasons are human error:
¸ Bags wrongly segregated at the upstream station:
o A local bag gets mixed with transfer bags. The passenger usually opens the claim
before the bag can be retrieved and delivered to the arrival carousel.
o A local bag gets mixed with ‘’through bags’’ and is therefore not unloaded
¸ Bags not unloaded:
o Bag is overlooked and remains in hold. The passenger opens a claim and the BSO
agent (Loss & found) does not necessarily communicate with the ramp staff to
retrieve the bag.
¸ Bags unloaded, but lost on the route to the baggage arrival carousel.
¸ Baggage containers are sometimes taken to the cargo centre by accident, leading to a
delay in the bags being returned to the baggage arrivals area.
Solution details
¸ All bags unloaded are scanned. Before opening a claim the loss & found agent can verify
whether a bag that has been loaded from the upstream station has also been scanned in
Boston during the unloading process. If there is no tracking scan in Boston, it is likely that
the bag is still on hold in the aircraft. The BSO agent immediately contacts the ramp lead to
double check the aircraft for any remaining bags to be offloaded and delivered to the arrival
carousel.
¸ Ramp agents are advised to check all bins and behind netting on all arrival aircrafts. In
addition, agents have been advised to close curtains on carts and to make sure they check
carts before leaving the drop off belt area.
Main benefits
The use of handheld scanning technology, tracking solution as well as communications is
key in managing these situations. Mishandlings have been reduced.
www.iata.org/bip 6/8 IATA Simplifying the Business5. Reinforcing communications to transfer passengers at international
arrival
Problem description
Some international inbound transfer passengers do not know or forget that they are
supposed to retrieve their bags at the arrival carousel to be re-injected to the system after
customs check. Bags are left behind in Boston customs hall.
Solution details
¸ Onboard announcements and airline agent announcements are made frequently in the
customs hall.
¸ The implementation of additional solutions is still under discussion. Big signs notifying
passengers to collect their bags before exiting customs could be beneficial to reduce
mishandling. This is a typical issue impacting all airlines, and in all such cases there is a
need for the airport authority, customs and airlines to work closely together.
Main benefits
More information for passengers and reduced mishandlings.
6. Improving interline transfer process to US Airways
Problem description
There are cases in which other airlines do not transfer bags in a timely manner to US
Airways.
Solution details
¸ Some airlines attend the interline meetings and discuss in detail common issues. This was
already the case and also ground handlers participated. However, there is still a need to get
all airlines to participate in these meetings. The airport authority, TSA and customs also
need to play an active role.
¸ By collaborating together all stakeholders involved can agree on and implement common
solutions to reduce mishandlings.
Main benefits
An overall better working relationship for the Logan International Airport community, with a
common objective: improve customer experience and satisfaction.
www.iata.org/bip 7/8 IATA Simplifying the BusinessThe Results: an improvement by 30% After the use of BIP and US Airways solutions the airline experienced a 30% improvement in baggage performance during the 3rd quarter of 2010 compared to 2009 (with stable baggage volumes at Logan International Airport). The IATA BIP has helped US Airways view the entire baggage handling process in Boston as small individual processes that all contribute to the overall customer experience. Having an “outsider’s” view of our procedures in BOS allowed us to make small changes which all contributed to our improved performance. I would highly recommend taking part in this program at your airport. Phil Ryan. IATA Acknowledgements IATA would like to sincerely thank US Airways for their partnership and leadership in reducing baggage mishandling across the industry. IATA expresses its appreciation for sharing their baggage performance results and continuing a mutually beneficial relationship that has resulted in lower costs for the industry and better service for the passenger. www.iata.org/bip 8/8 IATA Simplifying the Business
You can also read
