By James Pilcher
Enquirer staff writer

Delta Air Lines is turning to micro-technology to solve one of the biggest problems facing any carrier - losing or misplacing checked bags.

The Atlanta-based airline Wednesday announced it would begin creating a system that relies on small electronic transmitters called Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags embedded in each baggage tag issued for checked luggage.

Then to track the tags, a series of transmitters is installed throughout the bag system, including inside planes' baggage holds. Those low-frequency radio devices send out signals that read all the distinct codes on individual tags, and each bag is tracked in a computer.

Delta officials say the system greatly increases the accuracy for tracking individual bags, as compared with the bar codes now being used, saying well over 95 percent of all tags registered in the system during two separate tests in Jacksonville, Fla.

"We spend about $100 million handling mishandled bags throughout our system annually, even though we mishandle fewer than 1 percent of the bags we handle a day," said Rob Maruster, Delta's director of airport strategy, planning and development.

"The analogy I like to use is that this is like when the FAA switched to radar to control planes," Maruster said. "It helped everyone visualize where the planes are. Now, we're doing the same thing with the bags, which will enable us to better streamline how we handle them, while solving this problem for the customer.

"This will fundamentally change the way we handle baggage."

Maruster said the system will cost between $15 million and $25 million to implement; it could take up to two years to complete.

He said that Delta would turn on the entire system at once. The Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport is implementing a new system that uses wireless computers mounted on bag carts to better utilize bag handlers, and Maruster said that the tag system would be integrated.

He acknowledged that the tags themselves could be expensive, but that potential suppliers are dropping their prices constantly.

"By the time we launch this, we could see RFID tags as low as a nickel apiece.

"Every cent counts when we are doing 70 million bags a year," he said.

Delta had the eighth-best bag-handling rate among the nation's 19 biggest airlines in April, according to federal statistics, mishandling 3.05 bags per each 1,000 passengers. Erlanger-based Comair, Delta's regional subsidiary, had the 15th-best rate at 7.88 mishandles per 1,000 passengers.

Airline officials say that about 90 percent of mishandled bags are delivered to the passenger on the next available flight, but experts still say that the issue is a costly one.

"It's about time someone came up with something like this," said Darryl Jenkins, visiting professor for Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. "You can believe that it costs them a lot, especially if the bag is completely lost. There is the cost of paying off the person, but also the indirect cost of making that passenger and their descendants mad for life."

Jenkins said that Delta is first with such a system and that "I certainly hope other airlines follow suit."

Maruster said that Delta hopes to integrate the system with Comair and other regional subsidiaries and affiliates, but can't make any guarantees.

Consumer product and retail companies such as Procter & Gamble and Wal-Mart have been experimenting with RFID tags to track consumer spending and habits.

That has raised the ire of privacy advocates, but Maruster said the technology is not being used in that way, saying that only serial numbers are attached to the tags, which are disposable and cannot be tracked to passengers' homes.

E-mail jpilcher@enquirer.com