KEEPING TRACK OF BAGGAGE WITH RFID

Capitalizing on our RFID expertise gained over the last 10 years in the retail and industrial sectors, we have developed a global RFID baggage processing solution, which is totally compliant with the IATA recommended practice RP1740C.

The whole concept is designed, manufactured, tested, installed and supported by IER, thus ensuring an optimized integration into the existing installations. Except for the chip, IER manufactures numerous key elements of the baggage tracking RFID chain: inlays, printers, RF encoding modules and readers as well as modular tunnels. We also develop the RF processing (read/write) and supervision software to adapt to the existing baggage handling systems.

The trials conducted during the last few years have proven that the technology improves performance in a re-engineered baggage environment. Each of the five major groups concerned (airports, airlines, ground handlers, security staff and baggage system operators) could share the savings resulting from the better performance of a more efficient comprehensive baggage tracking system based on RFID.

AN IER RFID PILOT IN MADRID

In close partnership with SIEMENS and for AENA's benefit, IER has deployed a RFID baggage handling pilot at Madrid-Barajas airport. The testing carried out has produced astounding results with excellent reading rates close to 99.8% (for read rates in tests carried out with 1,000-piece baggage packages).

AIR FRANCE – KLM – RFID BAGGAGE HANDLING TRIAL

Air France – KLM has also tested RFID for baggage handling between Paris (CDG), Amsterdam (AMS) and Tokyo (NRT), using different hardware and RFID tags providers in each location. The two main objectives of the testing are the business case of the RFID handling system as well as the compatibility of the various providers’ systems in different environments.

For the CDG site, IER provided its global RFID solution including hardware: RFID reader arrays and IER 506 RFID bag tag printers, the RFID bag tags, as well as the software to integrate the RFID application into CDG’s Baggage Handling System.