Article: Delta Airlines Headquarters, Atlanta, Georgia*

All airlines and airports lose bags. After all, they must handle thousands of bags per day, sorting through the bags on each plane like a 500-piece puzzle dumped on the table from a just-opened box, and then rush them to the right connecting planes or baggage carousels. The challenging logistics, however, don't make up for the impact of delays on passengers.

In all, 31 million bags are delivered late worldwide each year, or about 1.4 percent. In the United States, 7 people per 1,000 passengers, or roughly 1 per plane, don't get their luggage on time, and they file 7.5 million mishandled baggage reports a year. Over the last decade, the three largest airlinesAmerican, United, and Delta Airlineswere the worst offenders. Several key statistics stand out. First, Delta is 30 percent worse compared to the best airlines. Second, 28 percent more bags are delayed today compared to a decade ago. No wonder passengers are frustrated, especially when airlines charge a $25 handling fee for the first checked bag and $35 for the second. Nothing like paying extra to have the airline lose your bags, especially when Delta brings in $952 million a year in bag fees Third, it costs $15 to transport each bag. Nine of these dollars are spent on labor, as 10 people touch each bag between check-in and the baggage carousel. U.S. Airways spends $250 million a year on labor for bags alone, or 11 percent of payroll. Four dollars are spent on sorting systems such as carousels, conveyors, carts, and tractors. Finally, fuel accounts for the remaining $2. Fourth, besides the customer dissatisfaction and ill will created, delayed luggage costs airlines $90 to $100 per bag, or $3 billion to $4 billion a year.

Passengers are beginning to realize that bag fees bring in much more than the cost to deliver bags, so they have every right to expect Delta to perform better job delivering bags. With advances in technology, clearly there have to be ways to use information technology to track bags and sharply decrease the number of delayed bags. If Amazon can send emails and texts notifying customers when their orders leave the warehouse, arrive at their local airports, and are delivered to their homes, then why can't Delta do the same thing with luggage that's supposed to never leave the airport, except in passengers' hands? Surely there are ways to get this done. What information technology changes would have to be made? Could Delta implement self-tagging, whereby passengers put destination tags on their own bags, and would that help the baggage problem or make it worse? Finally, Delta baggage handlers have been caught stealing cameras, laptops, iPods, and jewelry from passengers' bags. If we're going to use technology to get more bags delivered on time, how can we also use technology to deter theft among our own employees?

Questions

Mention 5 facts from the article

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MENTION 3 MAIN PROBLEMS IN THE ARTICLE

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STATE 3 STRATEGIES TO SOLVE THE THREE PROBLEMS ABOVE.

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WHAT IS THE OVERALL RECOMENDATION?