Whenever you travel, you leave the luggage you don’t need to have on hand with us, placing it on the check-in carousel at the airport. You board your flight and sit comfortably in your seat. But in the meantime, do you know the journey of your bags as soon as they leave your sight and where they travel?

First of all, for your luggage to be able to continue its journey, it must first be registered, weighed, and properly labeled. In addition to the information you add to your suitcase at home or at your accommodation, the label we put on during the check-in process contains information that determines its route and treatment. Furthermore, in case of loss, the information contained on the baggage tag makes tracking much easier.

Once placed on the carousel of the check-in counter, your bag is out of your sight and heading to the backstage of the airport.

Before getting on the plane, all baggage is subject to inspection procedures. The first procedure associated with checked baggage is an automated X-ray screening that analyzes the contents. If any suspicious object or compound is detected, the bag follows a second security phase, where the images are analyzed.

If it has been confirmed that everything is in order, the luggage goes through the carousel that electronically separates and sends the bags to the right place, according to their tag.

The bags of passengers with priority or traveling in Business Class, for example, are placed last, since they will be the first to leave the plane and collect them.

After this, and as soon as the luggage containers are full, ramp agents pair them with a small truck that takes all cargo to the plane. It is therefore recommended that your luggage should be sufficiently rigid, resistant, and well-packaged, in order to prevent any damage resulting from normal handling and contact with other luggage.

Finally, all luggage is placed in the hold of the aircraft by the ramp agents, manually or with the help of carousels. In the case of larger aircraft, bags travel inside the containers where they were already, but travel individually on aircraft with less cargo capacity.

Upon arrival at the destination, the luggage is unloaded following the same procedure, although in reverse, and made available on the baggage carousel located in the airport’s arrival lounge, where passengers can finally collect them.

Did you enjoy following the journey of your hold luggage? We recommend that you complement this post with the information available on our website.