Airline Customer Service Challenges and Solutions in Baggage Handling

AIRLINE CUSTOMER SERVICE- CHALLENGES AND SOLUTIONS
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Introduction
The Coronavirus pandemic has adversely impacted individuals, families, and various sectors of the economy. The airline sector is essential to the economic development of nations and regions globally. It directly contributes to the development of economies by transporting cargo and passengers across regional borders. However, the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic hit airports hard because restriction of movement was one of the measures implemented by countries (IFC, 2023). Millions of passengers canceled their already scheduled domestic and international flights. Airline companies also reduced the number of employees due to canceled flights and movement restriction policies (Maneenop and Kotcharin, 2020). The gradual decline of the Coronavirus cases and the administering of COVID-19 vaccines has seen the resumption of airport operations. However, most airline service providers are still struggling to improve their services while at the same time adhering to the policies and measures still in place.
For any organization to succeed, it must provide excellent customer service to its clients. The airline's customer service entails interacting with customers at various points in their journeys while improving their in-flight and in-airport experiences. The pandemic impacted customer service and experience, especially due to mass flight cancellations for an undetermined period. With the resumption of operations, the airline sector is plugged with a crucial task of steering towards recovery. Customer service is one of the departments to be improved, as a satisfied (or happy) customer equals a successful business (Istijanto, 2021). This study seeks to explain the resolutions to the customer experience challenges that the airline sector encounters after flight resumption. The critical problem to be discussed is baggage handling.
Baggage Handling
Baggage handling is the process of transporting passengers' luggage from the check-in point at the departure zone in the airport onto the plane cargo holding zone and then to a collecting point upon arrival at one's destination. The baggage handling process is long (the luggage has to be marked for identification, weighed, and transported from one location to the next) hence tiring. Customers always want their bags to be handled with care (which includes fast delivery services, tracking one's luggage, no damage and loss of luggage, and shortened baggage handling processes) (Rezaei et al., 2018). Some of the problems passengers encounter include long queues, delayed baggage processing and delivery, cancellation of flights, and low-quality service provision at the airport and in-flight. These challenges are attributed to congestion at the airport, inadequate staffing, insufficient training of new staff members, and extended ground time.
During the Coronavirus pandemic, domestic and international travel was restricted. After the extended lockdowns, the reduced expenses and desire for a break saw many people save up for vacations and other business plans. Therefore, after the resumption of operations, many individuals flocked to airports leading to congestion of people and luggage. Consequently, airline companies had to cut off their costs by significantly reducing the number of employees to mitigate the pandemic's impacts (loss of revenue due to movement restrictions). After the resumption of operations, rehiring is challenging as companies are still financially unstable after the lengthy closures.
Moreover, training new staff members has been slow, leading to delays in service provision. In addition to congestion, insufficiently trained recruits result in loss or damage of luggage. Extended ground time is primarily due to the constant fumigation of the plane and common areas within the airport to curb the spread of the virus amid travel (Andreana et al., 2021). The above problems may result in loss, damage, delay, and insecurity of passengers and luggage, hence customer dissatisfaction (which is bad for business).
Solutions to Effective Customer Experience
As explained earlier, customer satisfaction determines the success of a business. With the resumption of operations, airline companies should invest in an effective baggage-handling process. The Baggage Handling System (BHS) has been the prestige of large airline companies that have invested in the infrastructure (Infosystems, 2017; GoodworkLabs, 2018)). The BHS (comprising of a conveyor belt) has excellent efficiency as the luggage moves from one point to another without delay. If the baggage transfer is slow, travelers get frustrated because they spend unnecessary time waiting for their possessions. The roles of a BHS include transferring luggage from check-in, where the attendant registers it with the traveler's name and prints out several tags attached to each bag (Story et al., 2020). The tags contain automatic barcodes, which are scanned, and an individual can track the luggage and sends alerts whenever the luggage is tampered with. Furthermore, the airline can track the luggage as it moves from one station at the airport to the next to ensure its safety.
These tags are re...