Lost Luggage: EI Weekend 3479
Data, factoids and more about lost luggage of as the airline industry terms it “midhandled baggage.”
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Turkish Airlines recently informed PLY that in a fairly quiet year by my standards, I travelled some 97,758KMs on TK alone, almost circumnavigating the world 2.4 times.
As an airline, in 2025, Turkish alone circled the globe the equivalent of 28,000 times, a journey of some 1,125,149,000 kilometres.
(With its elliptical orbit, the Moon oscillates between 363,600 and 405,500 kilometres from planet Earth, by comparison).
That amounted to some 1,795,973 hours in the air for the Turkish Airlines fleet with some 85,331,654 passengers on board — a number not far south of the entire Turkish population at 87,685,426 people.
92,568 pets went along for the ride too in 2025.
Thanks to a fabulous site called luggagelosers.com, Turkish Airlines ticked up to 40th most likely in the world to lose your bags last week, with a 0.21% probability your bag may go missing (41st & 42nd placed Delta and Spirit airlines record the same percentage).
…It’s been a while since TK lost my bags (due to a cancelled flight in snow-bound Istanbul en route to FIA Boca a few years back). However I thought it might be worth considering this most vexing of topics, so here is some reading material on the topic…
IPO-VID LIVESTREAM: NEXT TUESDAY
“Nasdaq’s Blueprint for Europe”
Guest: Roland Chai
January 20th, 2026
1200 EST, 1700 UK, 1800 CET
Roland Chai is President of European Market Services for Nasdaq having previously run Nasdaq’s Marketplace Technology business and before that was Nasdaq’s first Global Chief Risk Officer.
At Hong Kong Exchanges, Roland served as Head of Post-Trade amongst a myriad of high level positions across HKEX, Head of Equities at LCH.Clearnet Ltd and as Product Development Manager at Australian Securities Exchange.
IN BIGWORLD
Looking at how regime change affects the world post Maduro in Venezuela, the big kahuna is of course Cuba. with the Havana regime looking ever more of an outlier in a region where some form of capitalism is reigning supreme.
Cutting off cheap oil / gas may be a catalyst for change to rid Castro era student politics forever BUT it also then reorients the entire region as suddenly THE tourist draw will be Havana and all other parts (barring presumably Guantanamo bay) which could grow the Caribbean but short term probably sees a massive substitution effect which could suck resources out of the rest of the region…
BITCARNAGE
No Pardon
POTUS has some standards when it comes to crypto parsons it seems: Trump Says He Has No Plans To Pardon Jailed FTX Founder Sam Bankman-Fried: NYT (The Block)
If you enjoyed this excerpt, you may be interested to know that you can read Bitcarnage every day in Exchange Invest.
Alternatively, if you want to follow Bitcarnage — the daily update on happenings in the world of crypto and digital assets, then you can find Bitcarnage as a standalone on Substack.
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“BMLL A New Chapter”
Guest: Paul Humphrey
January 13th, 2026
1200 EST, 1700 UK, 1800 CET
Paul Humphrey is the CEO of BMLL with over 30 years’ experience across senior positions in Banking, Brokerage, Exchanges and Market Data.
EXCHANGE INVEST WEEKLY PODCAST
Reitz Exits EEX,
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Indian Cross Asset Competition.
OF INTEREST
As always, a review of interesting reading to provoke thoughts and consideration… Not sure we agree with much of it….but it’s thought-provoking!
Luggage Losers: A Live Ranking Of Airlines By How Much Luggage They Are Losing Right Now
Luggage Losers
PLY: A riveting review of who is the worst for losing check in bags.
For the record, data from SITA, the global leader in air transport technology, whose WorldTracer platform is the industry standard for baggage tracking, reckon that in 2024 the overall global airline industry mishandled some 33.4 million bags at a rate of 6.3 per 1000 passengers while global air travel welcomed over 5.3 billion passengers. That was a slight uptick from 2023 where 5.2 passengers flew and there were 6.9 lost bags per 1000 passengers.
As this table shows, total mishandled bags and the rate of loss per passenger has climbed even since #BeforeCovid:
Meanwhile this SITA table shows the level of baggage recovery with a peak in 2024 of 8% of lost / stolen bags not being recovered.
Global Baggage Recovery Statistics (2015–2024)
Data based on annual SITA Baggage IT Insights and IATA reporting.
Direct Source Links
Latest Report (2025): SITA Baggage IT Insights 2025
Key 2024 Data: 33.4 million bags mishandled; 6.3 per 1,000 passenger rate; 66% of delayed bags recovered within 48 hours.Previous Report (2024): SITA Baggage IT Insights 2024
Key 2023 Data: 36.1 million bags mishandled; 6.9 per 1,000 passenger rate.Archive of Earlier Reports:
Baggage IT Insights 2023 (2022 Data)
Baggage IT Insights 2020 (2019 Data)
Baggage IT Insights 2019 (2018 Data)
Industry Standards (IATA)
For the regulations and standards that govern these statistics (such as the mandatory tracking requirements), refer to:
IATA Resolution 753 on Baggage Tracking — This resolution requires airlines to track bags at four key points: acquisition, loading, transfer, and arrival.
IATA Traveler’s Baggage Resource — General information on passenger baggage rights and long-term industry trends.
Where does this luggage all go? Try:
Unclaimed Baggage: The Nation’s Only Retailer Of Lost Luggage
Unclaimed Baggage
If you prefer a US view alone:
Baggage Mishandled By Marketing U.S. Air Carriers
Bureau of Transportation Statistics
Worth considering it’s not a conspiracy to make the airlines more profitable as:
Airlines Profit When Fewer Bags Go Missing
Smart Meetings
Lost Luggage Issues Cost The Airline Industry $2 Billion Each Year.
Send My Bag
How Your Lost Bag Ended Up For Sale In Alabama
BBC
Rattlesnakes, Rocks And A Rolex: The Weirdest Things Left Behind In Unclaimed Luggage
Euronews
The 2025 Found Report: A Look Inside America’s Lost Luggage
Unclaimed Baggage
Missing Luggage: Ranking Of The Worst Airports
Skycop
The Worst U.S. Airports For Mishandled Luggage [2025 Data Study]
Upgraded Points
FINANCE BOOK OF THE WEEK
“Infectious Greed: How Deceit and Risk Corrupted the Financial Markets” by Frank Partnoy documents how each new level of financial risk and complexity obscured sickness in corporate America, and how Wall Street’s evolving paradigm moved farther and farther beyond the understanding and regulation of ordinary investors and government overseers.
Get the book here.
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Suggestions welcome if you would like to nominate a book for us to cover!
Our next Book of the week will be unveiled Saturday in the EI Weekend Edition.
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IPO-VID LIVESTREAM PODCAST
In this episode, PLY sat down with Véronique Peiffer, PhD, to explore the mindset behind scrappy entrepreneurship, drawing on her experience at the intersection of science, innovation, and company-building. It’s a thoughtful discussion on resilience, experimentation, and learning by doing — themes that resonate well beyond life sciences.
Catch up now and stay ahead in the world of markets!
LAST WORD
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Really sharp analysis on mishandled baggage trends. The uptick from 2023 to 2024 is intresting given airlines talk alot about improved tracking tech like IATA Resolution 753. The fact that 8% of bags went unrecovered in 2024 feels way higher than people realize, especially when you think about pharmaceutical samples or irreplaceable items. The cost structure is probaly underreported too since airlines only account for visible compensation and not downstream impacts.