Lost luggage often ends up at Unclaimed Baggage store after airline efforts fail

Policy

Simple Flying | Simple Flying

By Sky Industry News

Jan 8, 2025

Millions of travelers take to the skies daily, leading to some undelivered baggage. Although airlines have reduced mishandled bags significantly over the past two decades, less than 0.03% of all checked luggage remains unclaimed after three months and often ends up in Alabama.

According to the SITA Global Baggage report, 36.1 million bags were mishandled worldwide in 2023. This equates to a mishandling rate of 6.9 bags per thousand passengers from the 5.2 billion passengers considered in the report, a decrease from the previous year's rate of 7.6 bags per thousand passengers. Improvements in technology and operations have contributed to this decline.

The US Department of Transportation has tracked lost luggage since 1990, with Forbes reporting that the mishandling rate was initially much higher at 6.73 per 1000 passengers but had decreased to 2.84 by 2018 despite doubled passenger numbers.

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Beginning in 2019, US airlines started reporting enplaned and mishandled bags instead of mishandled baggage reports. Only major airlines are required to report these statistics; smaller carriers like Avelo Airlines and Breeze Airways are excluded unless they choose to participate voluntarily.

In September 2024, out of over 37 million enplaned bags, about 156,256 (0.41%) were mishandled according to US Department of Transportation data—a notable decrease from September 2023's figure of roughly the same number of enplaned bags resulting in a higher percentage of mishandling.

Airlines must attempt to reunite lost luggage with its owners but are not always successful and may need to reimburse passengers for their losses. Unclaimed items end up at places like Unclaimed Baggage store in Scottsboro, Alabama—a business founded by Doyle Owens in 1970 that has grown into a tourist attraction receiving thousands of items weekly and drawing over one million visitors annually.

The store features a variety of goods ranging from clothing and electronics to unique finds such as a pole vaulting pole or Egyptian artifacts found inside a Gucci bag. Bryan Owens, CEO of Unclaimed Baggage, shared an intriguing story about finding an F-14 Tomcat fighter jet guidance system labeled "Handle with extreme caution."

Unclaimed Baggage processes approximately 7,000 new items daily; only one-third can be sold while another third is recycled or discarded responsibly. Items are also donated for charitable causes including eyeglasses through Lions Foundation or refurbished wheelchairs distributed via Wheels for the World.

Efforts continue among airlines toward reducing baggage mishandling rates even as air travel grows more popular—tracking solutions like Apple AirTags have been embraced industry-wide after initial hesitations around their use by certain carriers who now collaborate with Apple on locating missing items efficiently.

"The largest reason...that suitcases go unclaimed is that they do not contain any identifying information on or inside them," reminding travelers not forget essential details when preparing for journeys ahead into next year.