LUFTHANSA and Frankfurt Airport have been voted top of the class in terms of passenger baggage handling. This achievement is recognised in the ‘2009 BIP Best Airport Award' made by the International Air Transport Association (IATA), which regularly examines the baggage handling performance of the world's major international airports as part of its Baggage Improvement Programme (BIP). This industry accolade underscores the wide-ranging efforts undertaken jointly by Lufthansa and the airport operator Fraport in this area. Lufthansa passengers have benefited especially from the optimised baggage handling process at the airport. The IATAinspectors were particularly impressed by achievements in the transfer of time-critical baggage for passengers in transit, who account for a good 70 per cent of Lufthansa's passenger volume at Frankfurt, its largest hub. On the basis of up-to-the-minute flight data and the passenger's itinerary, Lufthansa identifies very short transfer times due, for example, to delays caused by bad weather or congested airspace. Baggage items belonging to affected passengers are then not fed into the baggage conveyor system as normal but are collected direct from the incoming flight by staff, wh then take them by car to the connecting flight. Up to 1,500 bags per day and their owners thus make their connection in time. That means up to 1,500 more satisfied customers. At the same time, by avoiding the expense of returning misdirected baggage to passengers, Lufthansa saves a considerable amount of money every year. The constant improvements in baggage handling are paying dividends in other areas, too. The number of items of baggage that temporarily go astray at Frankfurt Airport has fallen by more than 40 per cent since 2007. The Left Behind Index (LBI), in other words the mishandled baggage rate, currently stands at 1.3 per cent, significantly lower than at other comparable major airports in Europe, such as Paris or Madrid.
