SITA to Deploy Technology to Track and Repatriate Lost Items

SITA has signed an exclusive agreement with UKi Media & Events to trace and repatriate lost items at this year’s Passenger Terminal Expo, the world’s biggest airport exhibition being held in Paris from 15-17 June.

Using SITA WorldTracer® Lost and Found Property, attendees will be able to use their mobile device to register any missing items, which are automatically matched with found items, dramatically reducing the time and cost of repatriating lost items.

Every year more than 10,000 people from 130 countries visit the exhibition, with hundreds of personal items being left behind or lost.

SITA WorldTracer Lost and Found Property was launched in 2021 to solve a million-dollar headache for airlines: how to quickly return items left behind on aircraft or in airports to their owners. Every year passengers leave millions of items – including phones, wallets and bags – on planes and in airports, costing the industry millions of dollars in repatriation costs.

The benefits of the solution have now been recognized by security companies, airports and event organizers who face a similar challenge. It can cost up to $95 to manage and repatriate a lost item, including registration, handling inquiries and customer calls, storage and postage.

Leveraging SITA’s WorldTracer solution, Lost and Found Property cuts the cost of repatriating lost items by 75%. The solution also dramatically speeds up the time taken to find and return found items, with 60% of these items returned within the first 48 hours.

Tony Robinson, CEO and Company Founder, UKi Media & Events, said: “As one of our largest exhibitions, Passenger Terminal Expo sees thousands of people streaming through its doors each year. With such a large number of attendees, it is inevitable that personal items will be left behind or misplaced. Managing this challenge is both expensive and time-consuming. With SITA we know that we can streamline the process and focus on delivering a great event.”

Using computer vision, natural language processing and automated translation, WorldTracer Lost and Found Property searches a global database of images and descriptions to match the found item to a missing item report. The solution uses image recognition to identify details such as brand, material and color of the found item. It also recognizes similar words in the description to make a definitive match.

Drew Griffiths, Head of SITA AT AIRPORTS, said: “For more than 30 years, airlines have used WorldTracer to trace mishandled baggage. Now, leveraging new technologies, we have been able to expand the use of WorldTracer to lost property and to other sectors in the travel and tourism industry.”

WorldTracer® Lost and Found Property is the latest module to SITA’s WorldTracer service which is used by more than 500 customers in 2,200 airports worldwide to trace mishandled baggage.

Being multi-language and pay-as-you-go with the option for airlines to recover their handling costs from the passenger, the new Lost and Found Property is as easy to use for passengers as it is for airlines, airports and ground handlers.