Civil Aviation Industry Creates Intelligent Luggage System
Reporter Cui Guoqiang
The miscarriage, omission, loss and damage of checked baggage have always been the blocking and pain points of civil aviation passengers.
While the civil aviation industry is striving to improve the quality of luggage transportation, how to improve the experience of civil aviation passengers in terms of luggage service guarantee, enhance passengers' sense of control over checked luggage, and make passengers feel more at ease in checking luggage?
Liang Nan, director of the Transportation Department of the Civil Aviation Administration of China, said recently that the Civil Aviation Administration will actively apply new technologies such as RFID (Radio Frequency Identification Tracking Technology) to promote the implementation of the entire process of luggage from delivery, security inspection, distribution, loading and unloading, transfer to collection. Tracking enables passengers to obtain luggage information in a timely manner on mobile terminals such as mobile phones, and travel with peace of mind.
Reduced baggage error rate
The "14th Five-Year Plan" Civil Aviation Development Plan jointly issued by the Civil Aviation Administration and other departments highlights the main role of smart civil aviation in the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, and determines "one face for travel, one order for logistics, one customs clearance inspection, The "Five Ones" goal of "operating one network, supervising one platform".
Qi Qi, associate professor of Guangzhou Civil Aviation Vocational and Technical College, believes that smart luggage transportation is the epitome of smart civil aviation.
The problem of luggage transportation is the "short board" of the quality of passenger transportation in civil aviation. The civil aviation industry adheres to the concept of "truthful service" and actively adopts new technologies to improve the quality of luggage transportation and improve the passenger consignment experience. There is great potential for improvement.
The Civil Aviation Administration of China has issued the "Implementation Plan for the Construction of the Whole Civil Aviation Baggage Tracking System Construction" in accordance with the "one standard and two ends" work idea of "making a unified standard and standard system and promoting the construction of the 'platform side' and the 'airport side'". A series of guidance documents for promoting the construction of the full-process baggage tracking system, such as the "Notice on Accelerating the Construction of the Airport Terminal of the Passenger Baggage Tracking System for Passengers at 10 Million Levels", clarified the responsible departments, time points and work requirements.
At present, 33 airports in my country have established data exchange and docking with the baggage public information platform, and have realized the whole process tracking from departure to arrival of more than 1.55 million pieces of luggage on 64,000 flights.
The baggage error rate of airports that have completed the construction of the airport terminal has been effectively reduced.
Airlines, airports, etc. can obtain luggage location and status information in a timely manner, which improves the accuracy and punctuality of luggage transportation and reduces flight delays caused by luggage transportation problems.
In 2021, Shenzhen Airport will increase the efficiency of passenger luggage search by 50% compared with 2019.
In the first half of 2021, China Eastern Airlines' company-wide baggage delay rate decreased by 6.349 million points compared with the same period in 2019.
According to the "14th Five-Year Plan for Civil Aviation Development", Bao Yi, deputy director of the Development Planning Department of the Civil Aviation Administration, said that it is expected that the airport baggage tracking service level will reach 90% by 2025.
The emergence of innovative applications of information technology
Airlines and airports are striving to explore new technologies, new formats and new models, and have launched a series of innovative applications to improve the informatization of checked baggage.
Wang Yihe, head of the baggage system of the terminal management department of Beijing Daxing International Airport, said that Daxing Airport launched the "baggage tracking" service product in March 2020, and has so far helped passengers track 12.768 million pieces of luggage.
For inbound baggage, Daxing Airport has launched a full-process visualization service for inbound baggage, which can only provide information query of location and time, and can check baggage through video live broadcast.
Passengers can view the transportation track of the luggage cart in the field and the real-time unloading screen of the loading platform on the carousel aerial display screen.
Passengers can check the latest status of luggage by entering, scanning the luggage barcode or entering the ID card through various channels such as Daxing Airport APP, airline APP, WeChat applet, air display screen, self-service inquiry machine and so on.
In December 2021, China Southern Airlines' full-process baggage tracking service has guaranteed more than 100 million pieces of passenger baggage. The baggage tracking network organized by 46 domestic terminals reaches more than 60,000 passengers on average daily.
How to protect the rights and interests of passengers with abnormal luggage?
Li Haitao, head of the baggage service business of China Southern Airlines' ground service department, introduced to reporters that China Southern Airlines will increase the full-process tracking service for passengers with abnormal luggage in 2021, and send passengers with under-received or damaged luggage through text messages. , online payment and other node information, realize the active notification, timely reminder and fast processing of baggage protection.
The "one-click declaration" service for damaged luggage has been launched on China Southern's official APP, WeChat official account and mini program, and an online luggage compensation option has been added to provide passengers with more choices.
China Southern has introduced an automatic scanning device for incoming baggage, which realizes the whole-process monitoring of baggage arrival nodes, and reduces the information collection time for each piece of baggage by an average of 3 seconds.
China Eastern Airlines has also been committed to improving the quality of luggage transportation. In 2019, it began to apply RFID technology to track the whole process of luggage.
According to Ge Weile, general manager of the Baggage Service Center of China Eastern Airlines Ground Services Department, by the end of 2021, China Eastern Airlines has launched a total of 43 sites for full-process baggage tracking, which can provide services for 79.99% of the company's domestic baggage transportation volume. There are 24 sites for process tracking, and 19 sites for full-process baggage tracking using optical scanning.
Passengers can check in their luggage through China Eastern Airlines WeChat mini-program and China Eastern Airlines APP with their luggage tags in hand, so as to know in real time when their luggage has gone through security inspection, loading and loading, and can be picked up at the airport carousel after landing , in case of baggage problems, the local airport baggage inquiry phone number and working hours will also be displayed.
Ge Weile said that at present, the daily average number of visits to the whole-process baggage tracking and management service exceeds 10,000.
It is expected that by the first half of 2022, 52 sites will be online with full-process baggage tracking.
Promote industry data exchange and sharing
Although airlines and airports have made some successful explorations, there are still pain points to be solved in the innovative service of checked baggage.
Qi Qi believes that, first of all, the investment in software and hardware of small and medium-sized airports is insufficient, especially since the outbreak of the epidemic, the continuous capital investment of technical transformation projects of small and medium-sized airports is facing difficulties.
Secondly, how to realize the efficient connection of baggage transportation and inquiry systems on international flights is a major challenge faced by the civil aviation industry.
Li Yanhua, director of the Department of Civil Aviation, School of Transportation, Beijing Jiaotong University, said that due to the high investment in equipment based on RFID technology, large-scale promotion will increase the cost of baggage handling for airlines and airports, making it difficult for the intelligent baggage system to form a network, and it is difficult for the data to be efficiently stored. shared on the platform.
Uniform data format, full sharing, and safe exchange are important foundations for realizing smart civil aviation.
In early 2021, the Civil Aviation Administration issued the "Measures for the Recognition of Luggage Public Information Platforms", and recognized TravelSky's "Hangyixing" as the industry public information platform by means of licensing.
At present, the Civil Aviation Administration of China has instructed the Academy of Navigation, the Second Institute of Civil Aviation, China TravelSky and other units to focus on important nodes and technical requirements such as check-in, loading, transit, and arrival in the whole process of baggage transportation, and the compilation is both in line with international standards and with Chinese characteristics. The standard and normative system for the whole-process baggage tracking system in civil aviation, which meets the needs of system operation, data sharing, and unified interface.
The Civil Aviation Administration of China will continue to expand the coverage of baggage tracking services. In 2022, the civil aviation industry will start the construction of the airport side of the full-process baggage tracking service for small and medium-sized airports.
Various airlines and airports are also improving the luggage service satisfaction of civil aviation passengers based on actual conditions.
China Southern Airlines is introducing an artificial intelligence baggage claim function, reducing the processing time of baggage claim from 20 minutes to about 10 seconds.
Zhang Xiong, head of Hubei Airport Group Information Technology Company, said that Wuhan Tianhe Airport will establish data standards and technical specifications for airport collaborative operation, and promote the luggage tracking system with A-CDM (airport collaborative management system) and T-CDM (terminal collaborative management system). management system), logistics information platform and other systems to establish a collaborative decision-making platform for baggage business.
Cui Guoqiang