TAGSYS Develops Airline Industry’s First Reusable RFID Baggage Tag for Qantas

TAGSYS, the leading provider of item-level RFID infrastructure, today announced that Qantas, Australia’s leading airline, has deployed an RFID reusable baggage tag using TAGSYS technology as part of its Next Generation airport check-in system.

No longer will paper barcode labels need to be applied to passenger’s luggage. Now, with the Qantas electronic bag tag permanently attached to their bags, passengers will avoid long queues and enjoy rapid baggage drop at self check-in stations. Significantly improving baggage handling efficiency, while reducing the paper waste of disposable barcode labels, this highly innovative solution is both cost effective and customer service focused.

Qantas RFID reusable baggage tags can store details of up to four flights and can be reprogrammed for future flights. The RFID baggage tags are used to speed the baggage check-in process as well as allow more accurate baggage sorting and tracking.

TAGSYS and Qantas worked closely together to develop the UHF EPC Gen 2 compliant “Q Bag Tag”. While Qantas knew that RFID could greatly improve its baggage check-in processes, the RFID tags currently available on the market did not meet its requirements.

TAGSYS was able to design a medallion-style RFID passive inlay with a small footprint and very high electronic reading and writing performance for all orientations of the bag tag. Based on the Impinj Monza 4 chip, the tag is encased in a distinctive custom-built plastic housing designed by Marc Newson and produced by creative product agency Buzz Products.

In collaboration with its partner Buzz Products, TAGSYS developed a very robust RFID inlay to meet the high reliability and long life necessary for the often challenging baggage handling environment.

Qantas has launched its innovative RFID based automated baggage handling system at its Sydney and Perth domestic terminals. This will be followed by deployments in Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Canberra in 2011. The Q Bag Tags are used in conjunction with contactless loyalty cards from ST Microelectronics that customers can use as a permanent boarding pass and to facilitate passenger identification at the automated self check-in baggage drop stations.

The use of RFID will not only help speed baggage check-in and loading, but staff will also be able to use hand-held RFID readers locate baggage quickly in the hold of an airplane if an item has to be offloaded.

“The Qantas Q Bag Tag represents a revolutionary approach to utilizing RFID in airline applications,” says Alain Fanet, CEO of TAGSYS. “By expanding the value proposition of RFID from the point the customer checks their baggage and throughout the handling and sortation process, Qantas has positioned itself on the leading edge of RFID utilization.”

The deployment of a permanent, RFID-based baggage tag is unique in the airline industry. Previous RFID-based baggage tracking solutions relied on wasteful, disposable tags, and focused exclusively on improving the efficiency and accuracy of baggage sortation after the check-in process. The Qantas solution, offers an environmentally friendly reusable tag, which improves the accuracy and speed of after check-in processes, while offering new customer service benefits at the front-end of the process as well.

The baggage tags have been being distributed to Qantas premium frequent flyers. Once the solution is fully deployed, Qantas hopes to eliminate paper baggage tags for all its frequent flyers.