New baggage tracking system on trial at Heathrow

Heathrow Airport and airlines such as British Airways have had a very bad press in the last year or so when it comes to losing passengers baggage. Handing over your suitcase with your holiday essentials in it at check-in turned into a game of chance as to whether you got it back at the other end of your journey.

Now Emirates Airlines are trialling a system called RFID (radio frequency identification) which puts a tiny chip into the regular bar code tags that get attached to any checked in luggage and should in theory let the airline track bags easily where ever they are. Also if you register your mobile phone at check in you’ll get a text message when you land telling you that your luggage has arrived and where to collect it from.

Emirates will try out the system for six months on their London-Dubai route and if its successful other airlines could pick it up.