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Under the supervision of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), as part of the requirements of IATA Resolution 753, a Russian airline and four airports have completed the trial operation of the RFID baggage tracking system. The purpose of the resolution is to require airlines to accurately monitor the acquisition and delivery of each piece of luggage before June 2018. The solution, called Hand-to-Hand RFID Baggage Tracking System (HHRBTS), is provided by Longest Chance, a Hong Kong RFID solution provider. The six-week trial run started in early September and ended at the end of last month.
Andrew Price, IATA’s head of airport operations, said: “Luggage check is often compared to a factory, but have you ever heard of a factory that has no records and audits of entry and exit? This is the current status of the luggage consignment world. This tracking agreement is for the purpose of making A baggage consignment data that all airlines must record, thereby reducing misoperations.”
(The baggage handling system at the TE terminal in Sheremetyevo has 16 RFID reading points, each of which uses an Impinj Speedway Revolution reader integrated with dual MTI wireless Edge antennas)
Longest Chance is a joint venture between Invido Group and Russian RFID system provider ERFID. Vagapov, the current technical director of Longest Chance, recalled that Invido first contacted him, then the CEO of ERFID, and proposed to cooperate in the development of a cloud RFID solution dedicated to airport baggage tracking. Now, Vagapov continues to serve as the chairman of ERFID and provides technical support for Longest Chance.
Vagapov said that when it comes to RFID-based baggage management, the aviation industry has always had a “chicken or egg” problem. Airports want these solutions, but they have not built these infrastructures.
Therefore, Invido envisions the development of a solution that is easy to install and provides in the form of a service, which will reduce the barriers for airports and airlines to adopt RFID solutions.
Price said: “Longest Chance contacted IATA and proposed a plan to track baggage from boarding to arriving at another airport.” The system developed by Longest Chance ensures that passengers get their own baggage and notify the airline of the baggage transportation process. Of any abnormal conditions. He also said: “We are very happy to cooperate with Longest Chance and will act as a consultant during the installation process.”
Longest Chance provides hardware, ERFID server and software to let customers (airports and airlines) know when the luggage is checked at the airline counter, how the luggage is transported to the plane, if there are any errors, and when it arrives at the destination.
This technology helps reduce or prevent the possibility of baggage mishandling, speeds up the verification of baggage loading, and improves customer satisfaction by reducing the probability of error.
Loss of luggage is the main cost of airlines. If the passenger cannot find the luggage, the airline needs to compensate. If multiple airlines jointly operate a multi-segment route, then each airline needs to compensate in proportion to the mileage it is responsible for. This rule is not fair, especially for those airlines that are responsible for the longest mileage.
Pavel S. Markovich, Baggage Operations Manager of Aeroflot, said: “We live in the information age, and information is the most important resource. Baggage tracking at airports, terminals, aprons and pick-up areas ensures that the baggage handling process is error-free. If this information is lost, the least consequence is the increase in baggage search time. The biggest risk we face is the loss of baggage and compensation for passengers.”
Vagapov stated that the goal of the trial operation of the project is to let both the airline and the airport understand the true operation of the technology. Longest Chance chose four airports. Moscow’s Sheremetyevo International Airport (SVO) was chosen as the starting point, and three other airports were the final points: the large and busy Prague Airport, the smaller Bologna Airport, and the very small Tallinn Airport. Aeroflot is the main participating airline.
This technology was installed in the Sheremetyevo TE terminal building, using 16 reading points, each of which uses an Impinj Speedway Revolution reader with integrated dual MTI wireless Edge antennas. These readers are installed on the drive system in the direction the baggage will pass. Therefore, at each location, the system can detect mistransmitted luggage. In addition, 16 RFID printers have been installed at SVO Airport, but they have not yet been used. About 300,000 Ultra High Frequency (UHF) Avery Dennison tags are currently in use.
In this trial operation, passengers boarded from SVO airport and their destinations were three other airports, with luggage attached tags attached to their luggage. According to Vagapov, these tags have built-in RFID tags, and their unique ID numbers are bound to destination airport information.
Once marked with RFID tags, these baggages will begin to be placed in a sealed conveyor belt for transportation and will pass through up to 4 screening points. In each baggage RFID tag query point, the software compares the destination of the baggage and the existing position of the transmission belt to ensure that there is no error in the transportation. If any query point finds that the baggage is transferred to the wrong transfer location, is removed or is not inquired, the software will determine that there is a problem in the transfer process and will send a reminder to the baggage operations manager. Vagapov said: “Through this system, we can understand the condition of each bag.” The technology aims to prevent any package from being transported to the wrong destination. Vagapov explained that the software is a cloud-based multi-layer system. Each airport stores a database locally to deal with abnormal network interruptions, and the software also stores the read data on the cloud server. He said: “The local server is to provide redundancy.”
In each terminal airport, two Speedway Revolution readers with integrated dual MTI Wireless Edge antennas are installed in the baggage carousel loading area. Conveyor belt transportation). After the baggage is unloaded from the plane, it will be sent to the baggage carousel entrance, and the reader installed there will read the baggage tag ID number to identify it has arrived at the destination airport. At the same time, the software will also collect and store the data that the baggage has arrived at the terminal. In this way, these data can help find the last reading location of the lost bag.
Vagapov said that the results of the trial operation showed that the technology perfectly achieved its goals. He said: “The results show that the read rate is close to 100%.”
Longest Chance and its engineers also encountered some difficulties that they did not expect before. Vagapov said: “We underestimated the complexity of these systems. We encountered many challenges, including baggage management that did not follow a common handling process.” The company said that they are currently planning to deploy this solution in airports and airlines worldwide. And is negotiating with a number of airlines.
Longest Chance CEO Sergey Tsybouk said that the installation of SVO Airport took 5 days. Prague, Bologna and Tallinn airports only took one to two days. Prior to this, Longest Chance spent 6 months of contract negotiation and preparation work. He said: “In terms of technology, our system is very flexible and easy to install. Human factors usually take a lot of time and effort to fix.”
The purpose of IATA’s project trial operation is very simple. Price said: “What we want to see is that luggage transportation is correct during boarding and arrival at the terminal, and passengers can get their own packages.”
After the trial operation, Aeroflot Airlines decided to continue using the technology. Markovich said: “Aeroflot is very interested in using this technology in the baggage handling process.”
Vladimir Gavrilov, head of baggage operations at Sheremetyevo Airport, said that Moscow Airport intends to permanently deploy this technology and hopes that all parties will participate. He said: “Our airport is ready to use RFID technology, but unfortunately the technology is not popular. We hope that airlines can add RFID technology to their existing systems. This can improve service quality and save costs.”
Marco Rossetto, manager of automation technology and equipment operations at Bologna Airport, said he had a good impression of the technology. He explained: “Because of the need to install the system from multiple parties, we have a very difficult start. But the installation of the equipment is very simple and fast.”
Rossetto said that by accelerating and increasing the speed of the baggage handling process, the technology can help improve the passenger experience.
(Exclusive manuscript of rfid world network, please indicate the source author for reprinting!)
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