Swissport International, the world’s leading provider of ground services to the aviation sector, has launched a state-of-the art self-service solution for passengers arriving in Geneva that increases the quality and efficiency of missing bag reporting.

Customers needing to report a bag that has been lost at the departure or transit airport will no longer have to queue in front of Geneva’s ‘lost and found’ counter, instead, the declaration can be conveniently done online from their home, office or hotel.

Passengers without items to be declared for customs duties receive an information flyer at the airport, including an identification code to access the dedicated homepage. Passengers can then provide personal contact details and the description of the missing items at their own convenience, via the internet, to support the search.

On the first day of the new online service, the acceptance level of passengers was impressive, with more than 10% of the customers taking advantage of this self-service channel.

Luc Trentels, Managing Director of L&F software provider Sky Assist, commented:
"For many years we have been working in close cooperation with Swissport in order to increase passenger convenience during baggage disruption and Swissport management always supports and pushes forward new innovative processes. We are very happy to contribute to the development of advanced solutions."

During 2012, Swissport plans to expand the online solution to many other Swissport stations around the world, bringing this new application of the self-service concept into the post-flight experience.

With self-check-in, ticketing and boarding already standardised, customer surveys have concluded that an end-to-end self-service application portfolio for the entire journey is in demand and a high number of travellers like to be in charge of their trip.

Passengers who prefer personal assistance can still report their missing or mishandled bag at the airport using a staffed counter or one of our kiosks.

Roland Kühnelt, Head of Performance Management and Innovation at Swissport Group
Services, commented: "This is another important milestone for Swissport as an innovative and quality-oriented ground handling company, following the successful launch of the selfservice lost and found kiosks in 2010, where we have reached a usage rate of up to 20% for all lost and found cases in Geneva.

"We are very much looking forward to further improving the passenger experience with additional developments in this direction."

The next steps to further increase convenience include the launch of an internet site to update passengers about the status of the missing bag, including the proactive sending of e-mail and SMS messages each time there is an important status change.