WorldTracer is a

SITA Sita (; ) also called as Janaki and Vaidehi is a Hindu goddess and the female protagonist of the Hindu epic, ''Ramayana''. She is the consort of Rama, the avatar of the god Vishnu, and is regarded as a form of Vishnu's consort, Lakshmi. She ...

IATA The International Air Transport Association (IATA ) is a trade association of the world's airlines founded in 1945. IATA has been described as a cartel since, in addition to setting technical standards for airlines, IATA also organized tariff ...

service provided for the tracking of lost or delayed

baggage Baggage or luggage consists of bags, cases, and containers which hold a traveler's personal articles while the traveler is in transit. A modern traveler can be expected to have packages containing clothing, toiletries, small possessions, trip ...

. It has been in operation for many years and is used by all airlines that are members of IATA. Most of the

low-cost carriers A low-cost carrier or low-cost airline (occasionally referred to as '' no-frills'', ''budget'' or '' discount carrier'' or ''airline'', and abbreviated as ''LCC'') is an airline that is operated with an especially high emphasis on minimizing op ...

that are based in Europe such as

Norwegian Air Shuttle Norwegian Air Shuttle Aksjeselskap, ASA, trading as Norwegian, is a Norway, Norwegian Low-cost carrier, low-cost airline and Norway's largest airline. It is the fourth largest low-cost carrier in Europe behind Wizz Air, easyJet and Ryanair, the ...

Wizz Air Wizz Air, legally incorporated as Wizz Air Hungary Ltd. ( hu, Wizz Air Hungary Légiközlekedési Zrt.) is a Hungarian ultra-low-cost carrier with its head office in Budapest, Hungary. The airline serves many cities across Europe, as well as s ...

also use WorldTracer.

Operation

WorldTracer operates globally and can exchange information with 2800+ member airports. It tracks and follows baggage for up to 100 days and collaborates with other services. The World Tracer internet interface allows passengers to track their bags by entering a transaction number. Whenever baggage is found without an owner, it can be registered as on-hand baggage. It is then automatically matched with various missing-baggage files (called AHLs). Whenever an on-hand produces a likely match, the station that registered the missing bag file receives an alert. The bag is matched based on its routing number, tag number, passenger's surname, type of baggage and content. When a handling agent finds an on-hand which matches one of AHLs, he/she can request the on-hand by sending a message to the station that registered it.

Tracking numbers

The tracking number format is ''AAABBNNNNN'', where AAA is the airport's

IATA code IATA codes are abbreviations that the International Air Transport Association (IATA) publishes to facilitate air travel. They are typically 1, 2, 3, or 4 character combinations (referred to as unigrams, digrams, trigrams, or tetragrams, respecti ...

, BB is the airline's IATA code and NNNNN is a 5-digit tracking number. For example, the tracking number PHLDL19676 is from Philadelphia International Airport, flew on Delta Air Lines, and has the tracking number of 19676.

References

External links

* {{official website, http://www.worldtracer.aero/
Portal for travelers
Airline trade associations International Air Transport Association Organizations established in 1945 Organizations based in Montreal