LONDON, March 17 (UPI) -- Airlines lost more than 1 million bags of luggage and "mishandled" 42 million of them in 2007, a British travel industry watchdog group said Tuesday.
The Air Transport Users Council said in a release that the world's airlines "mishandled 42 million bags worldwide in 2007 compared to 30 million in 2005" and that passengers often struggle with the carriers to be fairly compensated for their losses.
The group said despite an international agreement reached in 2004 that was supposed to address the problem, "On too many occasions passengers are not fairly compensated for lost luggage because they do not have receipts for the items that were in their bag, or because the airline is taking into account depreciation of the value of the items in the bag."
Some airlines have gone to great lengths to address their baggage mishandling problems, AUC Chairwoman Tina Tietjen said.
But, she added, "Airlines should also turn their attention to what happens when something goes wrong and offer settlements that better reflect the loss to the passenger. Airlines are still too quick to load risk onto the passenger."
