The SITA 2026 Baggage IT Insights report shows mishandling has fallen below pre-pandemic levels for the first time, even as passenger volumes hit record highs.
In 2025, the industry made its strongest progress outside the pandemic, even as passenger numbers rise. Mishandled baggage rates dropped 23%, a sign that digital transformation efforts are taking hold, according to the SITA 2026 Baggage IT Insights report, the 20th annual edition of the industry benchmark.
But the bigger story is not just improvement. It’s the gap that remains. Mishandling still costs the industry $6.3 billion annually. Each bag carries an average cost of $260. With net profit averaging just $8 per passenger, one mishandled bag wipes out the profit from more than 30 seats sold, and five erase the profit of an entire flight.
Passenger volumes are rising faster than the infrastructure designed to handle them. In 2025 alone, 5 billion passengers traveled globally, yet 24 million bags were still mishandled. Across the longer term, mishandling has fallen by close to three-quarters since 2007.
What changed in 2025 was not one technology, but a shift in how systems connect: real-time data sharing, AI routing, biometric bag drop, and connected passenger devices. (....)