David Dingley

Hants

Consultant

Wonderful - yet another pilot project on RFID. The tiny problem in this is that many of the "lost" bags at Heathrow are lost whilst moving between flights.

In other words, they did not start out life at Heathrow and therefore won't have an RFID tag on them - and so the they will be excluded from the pilot scheme.

That is not to say RFID won't happen eventually, and serious studies are to be welcomed. But the international and integrated nature of air travel means that until many airports and many airlines use a common RFID benefits are bound to be limited - and barcode has to be there two, so duplicated infrastructure.

A close parallel with electronic ticketing - and that has taken over 10 years to become pervasive. It's meant to be at 100% worldwide by y/e 2007 - it will be close, but probably not there.

Don't hold your breath waiting for perfect luggage delivery. Even knowing where it is may not mean it makes the connection anyhow!