Losing or damaging a passenger's luggage can cost airlines dearly, with each mishandled bag generating average costs of around $260 (about €230), according to a new baggage report by IT services provider Sita, based in Geneva.
The company breaks down the figures as follows: airlines earn just $8 per passenger after all costs are deducted, meaning a single lost or damaged bag wipes out the profit from up to 30 sold tickets, the company said in a report published on Monday.
Sita estimates the total annual cost to airlines worldwide at $6.3 billion, down from $7.9 billion the previous year.
It also says that Bluetooth trackers that work with Apple and Android devices have helped limit the amount of luggage that gets permanently lost or where the recovery is delayed.
A growing number of airlines have been working with manufacturers to allow passengers to share the location of their lost luggage with the help of their tracker.
Sita tracks bags that are misdirected or delivered late - which account for more than 75% of all baggage problems - as well as damaged items (21%) and those that are lost permanently (4%).
The number of baggage incidents has been falling steadily, Sita said, dropping 19% year on year in 2025. There were also fewer problems than in 2019, the last full year before the pandemic, despite higher passenger numbers in 2025.
By comparison, in 2019, 26 million bags were lost or damaged out of nearly 4.5 billion passengers carried worldwide. In 2025, the figure was 24 million bags out of nearly 5 billion passengers.
Problems could be prevented or resolved more quickly through better data sharing between airlines, airports and ground service providers, enabling the location of every bag to be known at all times, the report said. Artificial intelligence tools could also help in this effort.