Delta begins second RFID bag tag test

Computerworld - CHICAGO -- Delta Air Lines Inc. starts its second test of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology to track bags today in hopes of improving accuracy over the 96.7% to 99.9% it achieved in a test last year (see story).
Pat Rary, manager for baggage planning and development at Delta, said the Atlanta-based company plans to test every bag checked in on its Jacksonville, Fla.-Atlanta route during the 30-day test. Rary, speaking here at the RFID Journal Executive Conference, said Delta would use 20,000 RFID tags from Alien Technology Corp. in Morgan Hill, Calif., and another 20,000 tags from Matrics Inc. in Columbia, Md. The tags operate at a frequency of 915 MHz, the same frequency that Wal-Mart Stores Inc. plans to use in its supply chain.
In its first test, Delta used tags from Matrics and San Diego-based SCS Corp.
Delta will write information to the RFID bag tags at the request of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), which has backed both tests, Rary said. That information will include the flight number, passenger name and what Rary called a "license plate" -- a serial number that identifies each bag.
In the first test, Delta had its lowest tag-read accuracy on metal containers the bags are placed in for loading into an aircraft. Delta hopes to achieve higher accuracy by more careful placement of the bags in the containers, Rary said. Bag handlers have been instructed to ensure that the tags don't touch the metal sides of the containers.
Rary said he believes this could improve accuracy over the first test, when the metal skin of the containers interfered with signals from the reader antennas mounted on the wheeled lifts used to load the containers on airplanes.
RFID bag tracking offers a "significant ROI" for Delta, Rary said. He declined to provide details, except to say the airline spends "tens of millions of dollars" in locating 800,000 misdirected bags a year. Delta handles 70 million pieces of luggage annually.
Even so, installing RFID bag-tracking systems at all Delta locations to serve the airline's 7,000-plus daily flights remains a very expensive proposition, he said, and the airline has no plans to launch it systemwide.
Anthony "Buzz" Cerino, communications security technology lead at the TSA, said international airlines such as Delta face a standards problem when they send RFID-tagged bags to international destinations. That's because different countries have approved different frequencies for RFID use. Japan uses 955 MHz for RFID tags, Cerino said, while U.S. tags operate at 915 MHz.
Later this year,Cerino said, the TSA plans to test tags programmed at one frequency to see if they can be read at another frequency in the relatively narrow 900-MHz band. If these tests are successful, it would demonstrate "international interoperability," Cerino said.