As the US braces for another summer of travel chaos, this Japanese airport hasn't lost a single bag in its 30-year history
Tomohiro Ohsumi/Getty Images
- Kansai International Airport in Japan says it hasn't lost a bag since it opened in 1994.
- It was named the World's Best Airport for Baggage Delivery by Skytrax.
- By contrast, around 3 million bags a year are mishandled on domestic flights in the US.
An airport in Japan says it has never lost a piece of luggage in 30 years of operations.
Last month, Kansai International Airport, in Osaka, won the Skytrax award for the World's Best Airport for Baggage Delivery.
"We believe that the record of having no baggage lost since the opening of the airport is the result of the daily efforts and careful work of everyone involved, including airlines and handling companies," the airport said in a press release.
It's the eighth time it's won the award. Kansai International Airport first opened in 1994, and estimates that it serves 28 million passengers a year.
In the last fiscal year, it handled about 10 million baggage items, according to Nikkei Asia.
The newspaper reported that a multilayered system is to thank for its strong record, as two or three staffers check the number and types of bags for each plane.
A manager for one of the airport's operators, CKTS, told Nikkei Asia there's a manual describing rules specific to each airline. The company aims to get all the items to baggage claim within 15 minutes of arrival.
In the US, 0.58% of all bags were mishandled last year, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. That's an improvement from 2022, but things often get worse in the busy summer period. During July, the figure rose to 0.75% last year — even higher than the year before.
In 2022, a total of 2.987 million bags were mishandled on domestic flights in the US, BTS data shows.
Many US and international travelers are starting to take measures such as putting Apple AirTags in their luggage in case their bag is lost, particularly after the chaotic scenes witnessed at US and Canadian airports in the summer of 2022.
Next year, Kansai International Airport will deal with an influx of visitors for the six-month-long Expo 2025. According to Nikkei Asia, it expects to see 37.3 million passengers during that fiscal year.