Many of my flying frustrations relate to baggage. Not just packing and hauling my own, but coping with the way other people deal with theirs.
Some tourists or business travellers pack like they’re migrating. They dump three or four large suitcases onto the belt at airport check-in, then try to sneak a fully laden backpack larger than an eight-year-old child on to the plane.
The result is that a lot of the airport staff and airline crew’s time and energy, and a lot of aircraft space, is taken up dealing with belongings rather than passengers.
But, lo!, I have a solution. What if we and our baggage went on separate flights?
OK, it wouldn’t work at all airport, on all airlines or all routes. But it would work at big airports on large carriers on popular routes. And it would work even better if airlines — which already cooperate on codesharing, frequent-flyer schemes and other mutually convenient enterprises — worked together.
And it would work particularly well on medium- to long-haul routes where there are dozens of flights each day — for example those originating at or transiting through hubs such as Singapore, London and Dubai.
The idea is that we check in all our luggage, as usual, two to three hours before flight time. There are strict, and strictly enforced, rules on cabin luggage, so almost everything is checked through. How much do you need for six or seven hours, after all?
The bags then go on to a cargo plane that leaves, say, an hour before the passengers. It also arrives an hour before the passengers do — or even earlier because there are fewer pre-flight hassles for cargo planes and no need for the pilots to provide a comfortable flight for bags.
The benefits for the passengers are more room on the plane, fewer bag-related hassles, disputes and injuries, a quicker flight (because the plane is lighter), and bags waiting for us when we arrive.
The benefits for the airlines are cost reductions on fuel for the passenger plane, the opportunity to reconfigure planes with more passenger space (or, if they want, more passengers), and a reduction in the security risk relating to bagged in the plane’s hold.
Plane turnaround time would improve because bags aren’t being loaded and unloaded and there’d be no more delays due to passenger no-shows, because their bags wouldn’t have to be taken off the flight.
The main negative is that this scheme involves flying and crewing one more plane just to carry bags. Also, there would have to be some reorganisation in terms of baggage handling procedures. But the other efficiencies — especially if the airlines work together — could easily cover these costs.
