A new report by OddsMonkey has revealed that Aer Lingus tops the list of airlines most likely to misplace passenger luggage.
According to travel.nine.com.au, the research, compiled by OddsMonkey, analysed over 700,000 Tripadvisor reviews and studied estimations from the Luggage Losers database, which tracks live sources from over 18,000 airports and airlines.
And out of 25 different airlines from around the world there was one that took out the unwanted crown.
Ireland’s national carrier Aer Lingus landed in the number one spot, with 3.14 per cent of its 14,003 reviews mentioning lost luggage.
This means that, for every 100 reviews, more than three passengers reported issues with their bags not arriving at their destination.
On the other end of the spectrum, low-cost carriers like Jet2, Ryanair, and Wizz Air all performed well, with 0.28 per cent, 0.32 per cent, and 0.50 per cent of their reviews mentioning lost luggage.
READ: Africa: 41,963 Passengers’ Luggage Missing, Delayed In One Year
One of the other rather surprising mentions in the report came when looking at the probability of losing luggage.
Despite being one of the largest international carriers in the world, British Airways was given the fourth highest probability score for lost baggage.
Aussie airlines including Qantas, Jetstar and Virgin didn’t get a mention on either end of the scale sitting somewhere firmly in the middle.
It comes as Qantas gears up to launch an Apple Air Tag tracking system, joining other airlines around the world including Air Canada, Air New Zealand and United Airlines that are embracing the software.
So how will it work?
AirTags owners will have the ability to temporarily share the location of an AirTagged bag with others – in this case, an airline and its baggage handling team – so that more people can be enrolled in the ‘search party’ for a lost item through Apple’s Find My network.
Qantas said its ‘mishandled baggage rate’ now sits at around six bags per thousand – the same as it was pre-Covid.
Virgin Australia also has in app-baggage tracking which was launched in 2023 and expanded to international flights in 2024.
The app’s push notifications keep travellers updated on the whereabouts of their luggage, at multiple points throughout the journey.