In May, IATA’s Baggage Improvement Program (BIP) team was at Chicago O’Hare to conduct the first ever alliance led BIP one-on-one diagnosis visit. United Airlines took the lead in Star Alliance’s efforts to reduce baggage mishandling. In addition to American Airlines, eight Star Alliance carriers including United Airlines completed the BIP self-help program: All Nippon Airways, Continental Airlines, Lufthansa Airlines, US Airways, Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS) and SWISS International Air Lines.

This high participation allowed the identification of baggage mishandling issues for 80% of all flights out of Chicago Airport. Moving forward, the IATA BIP team is looking at producing a version of the BIP self-help guide dedicated to the needs of Star Alliance. This is a service the BIP team can also develop for other alliances.

BIP provides the industry with solutions that address all causes of baggage mishandling. Through one-on-one diagnosis visits and the BIP self-help program IATA will bring these solutions to 200 airports. To learn more about BIP please visit the BIP project website.

If you are interested in a diagnosis visit, please contact bip@iata.org. For participation in the self-help program, please contact your IATA Country Representative.