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Lost and delayed luggage — the source of much frustration for travellers everywhere — is not something airlines, especially Canadian ones, like to discuss.

But now there are global numbers about lost luggage that might bring some comfort to passengers who have found themselves at the mercy of airlines.

SITA Inc., a Swiss-based company that provides technological solutions for the air transport industry, estimated in a report released yesterday that some 30 million pieces of luggage were temporarily lost around the world last year — with about 200,000 bags never being reunited with their owners.

That's about 1 per cent of the roughly 3 billion bags handled by airlines each year.

In Canada, however, precise numbers are really anybody's guess.

Unlike American and some European carriers, airlines in Canada are not required to disclose such information, said Jadrino Huot, a spokesman for the Canadian Transportation Agency, the tribunal of last resort for fed-up air travellers.

It's very likely, however, that the record of Canadian airlines is comparable to the 1 per cent mishandling rate by airlines based out of Western countries, he said.

«It's very rare that (luggage) is lost forever,» Huot said.

The reasons why luggage is mishandled or lost vary, depending on whom you talk to.

The study found that baggage can be mishandled during connections to other flights, and plane delays can result in missed transfers. Luggage can also be delayed from extended security checks due to the heightened state of terror alerts. Only 3 per cent of all errors are due to tagging mistakes at the ticket counter, the study found.

Air Canada spokesman Peter Fitzpatrick was noncommittal yesterday when asked about how many bags the country's largest carrier loses each year.

«I don't have an awful lot to tell you,» Fitzpatrick said at the outset of the interview.

«It's within industry norms,» he then added, saying such information could not be disclosed for competitive reasons.

When an Air Canada passenger can't be found, information about the luggage is put on a website
How many lost luggage complaints does Air Canada get each year?

«That's not a number I can give you,» Fitzpatrick said.

How much does Air Canada pay out in lost baggage claims each year?

The response was the same.

Asked to cite the biggest reason bags are mishandled by an airline, Fitzpatrick said he couldn't really put a finger on it.

Then he said it would help if passengers marked their bags more clearly, perhaps with a sturdy tag as opposed to flimsy paper tags — which also happen to be the kind handed out by airlines.

Asked about the industry average for lost baggage, Fitzpatrick said he didn't have a precise percentage.

Fitzpatrick said just «a very small sliver» of bags are lost. «The vast majority arrive with passengers.»

Gillian Bentley, a spokeswoman for Calgary-based WestJet Airlines, never called back with answers to questions provided to the company.

The SITA report also indicated that globally, mishandled baggage cost airlines $2.5 billion (U.S.) last year compared to $1.6 billion in 2004.

What happens to bags that are irretrievably lost or never reunited with their owners?

Huot said Canada has a similar facility to one in the United States — a giant warehouse in Scottsboro, Ala., that sells more than 1 million items each year in auctions.

The Canadian facility, he said, is called the Unclaimed Luggage Goods Boutique on Montreal Rd. in Ottawa, where proceeds from auctions are given to various charities.

A call to the boutique turned up a wrong number and a neighbour said the place had gone out of business.

Fitzpatrick said when Air Canada cannot find a passenger, it ships luggage to a central depot, and information about the bag is then put on an Internet site called the World Tracer — a global registry. After three months, the contents are donated to charity, he said.

[tags]Air Canada, WestJet, lost luggage, lost baggage[/tags]