I once flew United Airlines to Osaka where my bags didn’t make it. That wasn’t the airport’s fault. United hadn’t loaded the luggage in San Francisco. They also didn’t authorize delivery to my hotel when the bags caught up to me, either.
That wasn’t the airport’s fault. In fact the airport takes pride that it has a 30 year record of not losing a single piece of luggage.
Kansai International Airport has been responsible for no lost luggage since it opened in September 1994, gaining international recognition for prompt and reliable baggage delivery.
…This successful track record is the result of multilayered checking work. The types and number of each plane’s bags and its passenger transit information are ascertained by two or three staffers. …Upon an aircraft’s arrival, if the number of unloaded items differs from the number counted on loading, his staff immediately inspects the cargo hold on the aircraft, the parking apron around it and the sorting room.
The manual specifying baggage handling processes describes rules specific to each airline and provides information on where baggage is stowed in various aircraft, among other things.
Airport rankings for least mishandled bags – note that this is not the lowest number of mishandled bags at the airport, but mishandled bags attributable to the airport itself rather than an airline – are reportedly as follows, with none of the best airports in the United States:
| 1 | Osaka Kansai | |
| 2 | Singapore | |
| 3 | Bahrain | |
| 4 | Doha | |
| 5 | Chubu Centrair | |
| 6 | Helsinki-Vantaa | |
| 7 | Tokyo Haneda | |
| 8 | Taiwan Taoyuan | |
| 9 | Seoul Incheon | |
| 10 | Dubai |
Here’s airport staff in Japan actually cleaning scuff marks off of luggage at baggage claim in Japan.
And here’s another video showing staff aligning luggage as it comes out at baggage claim, making sure that handles face customers for easier pickup.
@adrianwidjy A designated person to ensure your luggage lands gentyly at the conveyor belt! Wow! What a dedication to care of things! #japan #thingsinjapanthatmakesense #japantravel #travel #luggage #airport #hanedaairport #PlacesInSydney #japanthings #japanfinds ♬ Super Shy – NewJeans
These videos don’t identify the specific airports in Japan, but Japanese practices can extend to airports abroad as long as they’re staffed by the Japanese airline itself and not just contractors. Here’s a Japan Airlines employee at London Heathrow making sure every bag is laid symmetrically on the belt at baggage claim as well.
Japan airlines value perfection. And so do we. Isn’t this the neatest baggage belt you’ve ever seen? https://t.co/I8ZYHJO5cU pic.twitter.com/SwtDMTav7L
— Heathrow Airport (@HeathrowAirport) September 25, 2019
In the U.S. however of course there are only two kinds of luggage: carry on and lost, although your risk varies by airline. We’ve seen an American Airlines baggage handler fell asleep in the cargo hold and fly to Chicago. And across the Pond at British Airways a memo had to go out asking staff not to urinate in the cargo holds of their planes.
If your bag makes it to its destination there may not be anyone to meet it as it comes down the chute. Or it might reach baggage claim only to find a geyser of water spraying up from the floor next to the carousel.
@ Gary — This basically confirms that bags in the US are either stolen or fraudulently reported lost. Sad that Americans are so willing to accept rampant dishonesty. I would move to Japan in two seconds if I could.
That same dishonesty is what leads PrimoAir, et al to continuously steal from their customers via serial devaluations, and our courts allow it. It is truly sickening.
The Kansai airport employees actually help me get my bags off the delivery ramp .
Kansai also has outstanding train service to Osaka and Kyoto .
Narita is also outstanding in both respects .
Surprising to see Singapore on the top of the list. The only people who lost my bag after hundreads of international trips are Singapore. That too we flew the new first class Suites. May be it was really my bad luck. To add to that, it took over 6 months and lot of escalations to get claim processed.
Great job Osaka Kansai!
The baggage handling of Japan vs. America is a reflection of the American hiring practices of hiring to the lowest common denominator based on pay. You get what you pay for.
Yes! I’ve been using KIX since it opened. Each of my two dozen or so arrivals there, my checked bags arrive cleaner than when they were checked… and awaited me, next to carousel, when I arrived from immigration. An alternate universe. All other Japan disembarkation points perform close to that standard.
I fly in to HND every few months. There has always been a person when the luggage comes out arranging it. Add in the efficiency of immigration and customs and I’ve never been delayed coming in. There app with QR codes for customs and immigration should be the standard worldwide. Although the last couple of trips I’ve used the MPC app coming back into ATL and never had to wait on customs.
I wish the Skytrax results were a complete list so we could see where other airports stand including the busiest in the USA and in other countries.
What does that mean exactly? Because I believe it is unionized airline staff that loads the bags onto the plane at US airports?
If the stats cover all bags that arrive and depart at the airport from the time the plane lands (or up to departure) – and connecting flights – then yes that’s impressive for Japan. If it just covers bags delivered to the baggage claim area then not really meaningful.
Also good to know about Helsinki as I will be connecting thru HEL this summer with a rare checked bag
Apparently Sam Brinton never flew to Osaka
@jns … +1 . I’ll bet Newark is way down the list .
Everything air travel related Japan does way better than the US. Flew 2 legs on a wide body a few days ago and they finished boarding in 10 MIN! US airlines take 10 Min to board just the first passenger!
Another thing about the airports on this list (KIX, HND, ICN, SIN – the ones I go to a lot) is that PRIORITY BAGS ACTUALLY COME OUT FIRST! My home airport is ATL, and 90% of the time PRIORITY BAGS come out near the end. It’s almost as if the bag handlers have a private joke to purposely flout instructions. It happens way to often to be random.
It is simply everybody taking pride in the job they have, and doing it properly and respectfully. Cultural difference between the US and Japan.
I landed at Kansai only a few days after it opened–everything was new, ran like clockwork despite only being in operation for a few days, and the gate people spoke nearly perfect English in addition to Japanese. Immigration was quick and efficient.
What on contrast on my return flight that landed at LAX–after a considerable wait short of the gate, we were sent to a remote terminal. Neither the gate agent or the bus drivers could speak passable English. Had to follow a dirty strip of tape through a maze of passage ways to find our way from the bus drop to immigration, which also took over an hour. Things have only gotten worse in the US since then
Seppuku
@Boraxo They are dancing around the point which is – bags do not just fall out of planes in the sky. They are not “lost.” “Lost bags” are either misdirected by employees who don’t care about doing the minimal task of punching the right buttons properly, stolen by employees, or stolen by outside thieves visiting the airport. So yes, how much people in the culture and at the airport care matters a lot. In fact, you don’t even need to change the larger cultural factors around crime at all – if the airports and the airport employees cared enough they could station people to check tag stubs against bags before leaving and stop almost all outside theft, but they’d rather let people get ripped off than pay for a few more hourly employees to do that job.
In the early 1990s I flew CPH-SIN via LHR.
My bag was checked through from CPH where I flew coach on SAS to LHR and then Biz on Singapore Airways to SIN.
My bag magically appeared as the first on the baggage belt in SIN, with a Priority tag on it apparently attached in Heathrow.
Why is US culture so lacking in quality?
@Carsten Thomsen *One* reason for it (certainly not the whole story) is that we are a victim of our own success. If someone actually is competent and conscientious about their job in the USA they can almost certainly do better than airport baggage handler. Other countries have such entrenched caste systems and mass unemployment that qualified people who should be doing more skilled work are stuck in these entry-level roles.