Air France Launch RFID Baggage Trial
By Cathy Buyck, Air Transport World | Jul. 06, 2006
Air France launched a trial with RFID tags to label and track passenger baggage on flights between Paris Charles de Gaulle and Amsterdam Schiphol.KLM joins the trial on July 10 at two baggage drop-off points in Schiphol's Departure Hall 2. The tags will be used for all baggage dropped at those points regardless of destination. Later this year, all drop-off points in DH2 will be equipped to handle RFID tags. KLM developed RFID together with Schiphol, which is responsible for facilitation.
"We are launching these RFID baggage tests in the hope that these labels will eventually replace the existing barcode technology. This will enable Air France-KLM to secure its leading position in terms of offering passengers innovative products," AF VP-Operations Pascal de Izaguirre said. The technology will be tested on Paris-Tokyo flights this summer. The new RFID labels, which are uniform to Air France and KLM, eventually will be introduced to outstations.
Airlines could save $768 million per year using passive RFID baggage tags, IATA RFID Project Manager Andrew Price said during a March ATWOnline webcast (ATWOnline, March 22).