Lost Baggage Increase 25 Percent Sita Says

Lost baggage increased a whopping 25 percent last year, according to a report by aviation technology company Sita.

Airlines around the world lost 42 million bags last year.

Sita says by 2011 the number of lost or mishandled bags will grow to more than 50 million a year as passenger numbers increase.

Worldwide, about 2.25 billion pieces of checked baggage are handled by airlines and airports each year.

More than 98 percent are reunited with their owners at the end of their flight and most of those that do not are found and returned within 48 hors.

About three percent of misplaced bags are never seen again.

Sita says most bags go missing while being transferred from one aircraft to another during a stop-over, while 16 percent of bags fail to be loaded at departure, five percent are loaded or offloaded in error, and three percent have a "tagging error".

By Elizabeth Clifford-Marsh