By Ashton Morrow, Delta Airlines, June 6, 2017
Delta was honored with the Best Radio Frequency Identification Technology (RFID) Implementation award from RFID Journal in May. This award recognizes the airline’s industry-leading baggage handling strategy. It uses RFID chips embedded in individual bag tags to gather information throughout the bag’s journey, giving customers more transparency and reducing the number of mishandled bags.
“It’s an incredible honor that Delta’s implementation was recognized by experts in the RFID industry,” said Rodney Brooks, Director – Operations Field Support. “All teams that supported deployment of the industry leading RFID initiative should be proud of this accomplishment. We have more work to do, but the success to date is the result of a lot of hard work by the Field Support team, our IT colleagues, and most of all – our frontline employees.”
Delta’s RFID implementation beat submissions from the Houston Forensic Science Center and NASA to claim the 2017 award. And this isn’t the only recognition Delta’s RFID implementation has received. Last year, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) highlighted Delta’s efforts and shared a study that found a global RFID solution could reduce the number of mishandled bags by up to 25 percent by 2022.
“While our mishandled baggage rates are already far lower than other global U.S. carriers, we remain committed to continuous improvement. This project is the essence of Delta’s brand attributes – Thoughtful, Reliable, Innovative” said Brooks.
This Best RFID Implementation award is given annually to organizations that cut costs, improve efficiencies or otherwise improve the way it does business.