New airline bag tags that can be
programmed with a mobile phone
could make those sticky strips of
paper a thing of the past — and
maybe even prevent a painful
separation between you and your
bag. Airlines around the globe are
keen to dispense with the bar-
coded thermal paper tags they
print by the billions and loop onto
your luggage. That adhesive paper
is expensive, and the codes don’t
keep millions of bags from being
lost each year. Worldwide, about
1% of luggage was mishandled last
year, costing an estimated $2.6
billion, according to the
International Air Transport
Association. “It’s painful [for
airlines] in so many ways,” says
Richard Wartham, president and
chief executive officer of Vanguard
ID Systems, a suburban
Philadelphia company that makes a
radio-frequency identification bag
tag. “It’s 1970 technology, you
know? But because it’s just such a
huge installed base, it’s hard for
them to change on a dime.”