Virgin Australia has rolled out a baggage tracking tool, enabling passengers to track the status of their checked baggage via the airline’s app.
The carrier launched a pilot of the programme in May 2023, and this week has rolled it out across more than two thirds of its domestic network.
The tracking tool is available on most domestic routes between major airports, including Sydney-Melbourne, Brisbane-Sydney, Melbourne-Gold Coast, Melbourne-Hobart, Adelaide-Melbourne and Sydney-Sunshine Coast among others.
To access the tool, passengers must download the Virgin Australia app and enable push notifications via app settings. Once enabled, notifications will be sent to the guest’s phone throughout the journey, including upon the bag being checked-in, transferred to an international partner airline, and available for collection at the final destination.
The tool will also advise the guest which carousel the baggage is available for collection from.
Virgin Australia expects more guests to check in baggage as a result of the new tracking tool, with its remaining domestic routes, including select services from Perth, expected to adopt the tool soon.
The airline has a mishandled baggage rate of 1.5 per 1,000 guests, which it says is five times better than the last recorded industry average (7.6 bags per 1,000 passengers).
Indeed air transport IT provider SITA’s latest Baggage IT Insights report showed “a surge in baggage mishandling rates”, largely owing to the resumption of international and long-haul flights and shortage of skilled staff and congestion at airports.