After arriving at your destination and a week-long holiday ahead of you to enjoy, the last thing you want is to deal with lost luggage.
Millions of cases go missing every year – and it’s estimated that a whopping 33.4 million pieces of luggage were mishandled by airlines in 2024, including lost, damaged or delayed.
It’s often a complicated and drawn-out process to locate and be united with lost baggage – and can involve filling out online forms, chasing airlines and airports for updates, all whilst trying to replace your missing items.
Thankfully, a new Google feature means passengers can now send their lost luggage locations directly to airlines themselves to help speed up the system.
Aviation technology specialist SITA has integrated Google’s Find Hub share item location feature into WorldTracer.
A new feature to help locate lost luggage has been introduced between Google and aviation technology specialist SITA
WorldTracer is a global system used by more than 500 airlines worldwide to find and reconcile delayed and mishandled baggage.
The new process means passengers can choose to share the location of their luggage directly with the airline through WorldTracer.
It should help to support a successful and quick recovery of mishandled belongings.
Through the usual process, airlines typically rely on airline-to-airline data exchanges as well as airport scans.
But with Google’s Find Hub now allowing additional information from the passenger to be added, it creates extra visibility.
‘Airlines are operating in an environment where passengers expect visibility of their baggage at every step of the journey,’ said Nicole Hogg, Portfolio Director, Baggage at SITA.
The passenger can generate a secure link via Find Hub when their bag is delayed and send it to the airline.
The sharing can be stopped at any time and the link expires automatically for additional safety. Location data is also encrypted, and only the passenger decides who can access it and for how long.
Nicole added: ‘When a bag is delayed, uncertainty increases compensation costs, customer service pressure, and reputational risk.
‘What we are seeing is a move from manual tracing to clearer, data-supported recovery. When passengers choose to share their bag’s location, airlines gain insight at the moment it matters most.
‘This reflects how baggage recovery is becoming more transparent, more collaborative, and more precise.’
Several airlines across the globe, including Air India, China Airlines, the Lufthansa Group and Turkish Airlines use Find Hub as part of their lost baggage recovery process.
It comes as mishandling rates have fallen by 67 per cent over the past two decades, even as passenger volumes have more than doubled, according to the SITA 2025 Baggage IT Insights report.
Other technology has been introduced to help streamline and enhance the process, including the use of Apple Air Tags.
The integration allows passengers to share the Air Tag’s location with airlines and British Airways, Lufthansa and Virgin Atlantic were some of the carriers to first begin using the system.
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Passengers can now send their lost luggage locations to airlines – as over 30million baggage is mishandled every year
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