SITA has signed an exclusive agreement with event organizer 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, France, on June 15-17.
Every year more than 10,000 people from 130 countries visit the exhibition, with hundreds of personal items being left behind or lost. Using SITA WorldTracer Lost and Found Property, attendees will be able to use their mobile devices to register any missing items. Using computer vision, natural language processing and automated translation, the WorldTracer Lost and Found Property solution then 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.
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.
It can cost up to US$95 to manage and repatriate a lost item, including registration, handling inquiries and customer calls, storage and postage. According to SITA, its solution cuts the cost of repatriating lost items by 75% and 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 of 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.”
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.”
Click here to learn more about SITA’s solutions, and here to register for your free entry pass to Passenger Terminal Expo in Paris, France, on June 15-17. SITA will be exhibiting at booth Z2.4190.