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The Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) met with domestic airlines, other aviation service providers, and the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) in Lagos this week to finalise plans for migration to Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) bag tagging which it said would change how luggage is tracked at the airports.
At a stakeholders meeting held at the NCAA annex recently, the Director for Public Affairs, Mike Achimugu, said that the technology will allow air passengers to monitor the location of their bags in real time, from the moment they check in at the airport counter to their arrival at their final destination. He said this will directly address two of the most common complaints which are that bags are usually misrouted to the wrong destination and fail to arrive on the same flight as the passenger.
He said that though RFID-based baggage tracking is already in use at airports in other parts of the world, its adoption marks a first for Nigeria’s aviation sector and if properly implemented, the system would bring greater efficiency to baggage handling operations, speed up the resolution of passenger complaints, and improve overall passenger satisfaction.
“For many years now, one of the biggest complaints in the industry has been that of baggage, it’s either passengers’ bags have been short-landed, missing, lost, or destroyed. After delayed flights, baggage issues are the biggest problem. So what we’ve decided to do is improve the system by automating it. The technology we are looking to use now is RFID to replace the current technology being used,” he said.
Under the existing barcode-based framework, ground handlers must manually align a laser scanner with a printed paper tag attached to each piece of luggage. The process is prone to failure as a tag that is twisted, torn, or obscured during handling can be difficult to read and this contributes to the kinds of misrouting and short-landing incidents that have long frustrated travelers.
Achimugu said that RFID technology works differently as each bag is fitted with a tag containing a microchip and antenna that transmits location data through radio waves rather than relying on a scanner reading a printed code. Because the system does not require a direct line of sight, he said that scanners mounted at various points in the baggage-handling chain can read multiple tags at the same time, even when bags are stacked inside containers, moving along belts, or loaded into cargo holds.
The practical effect, according to Achimugu, is a system that catches errors before they happen. RFID readers positioned on conveyor belts and ramp loaders would automatically flag bags that have been misrouted before they are loaded onto an aircraft, making it far less likely that a bag bound for Kano could mistakenly end up on a Lagos-bound flight.
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Achimugu said RFID tracking would allow missing or misrouted bags to be identified and located instantly, rather than over the course of a week-long search-and-reconciliation process.
Through the app, passengers would be able to follow their luggage’s progress in real time, confirming that it has entered the sorting belt, tracking its movement to the aircraft, and receiving live status updates once it reaches the destination airport.
Achimugu said the app would allow passengers to check on their bags even after boarding a flight and this would also change how passengers interact with airlines when something does go wrong. Rather than filing a vague complaint, travelers would be able to pinpoint exactly where a missing bag is. “If for any unforeseen circumstance your bag has not landed with you, you can tell even without complaining to the airline where your bag is, so when you call to complain, you can tell them specifically, ‘I’ve landed in Lagos, but my bag is in Enugu.,” he said.
Achimugu revealed that the initiative has the backing of the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, who he said has authorized agencies to review the technology before reporting back. He said consultations have already taken place and potential implementation challenges have been examined, with stakeholders reaching a general consensus to proceed with the rollout despite the technology being new to the Nigerian market.
He said the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), is leading the technical implementation of the system in collaboration with the NCAA. Meanwhile, the NCAA is reviewing existing civil aviation regulations with a view to making automated RFID tracking mandatory for all airlines operating within Nigerian airspace, rather than leaving adoption optional.
He said integration with various airline operating systems is ongoing and a contract for the project is expected to be finalized soon. The authority said it is targeting the commencement of operations before the end of the year, though it has not yet released a schedule for the rollout across airports or specified which routes or terminals would see the technology first.
