More than one million bags were lost by airlines in 2007, according to the AUC.

According to a report by the Air Transport Users Council (AUC), one million bags – one bag for every 2,000 passengers – were lost by airlines worldwide in 2007, while a further 42 million were ‘mishandled’. This figure could increase to 70 million by 2019 as air passenger numbers grow.

Legally, airlines are obliged to assess individual claims for lost, damaged or delayed baggage under the Montreal Convention. An airline’s maximum liability limit for mishandled luggage is 1,000 Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) per passenger (SDR is an international unit of account and is converted in the same way as foreign currency).

The basic premise of the Montreal Convention is that passengers receive compensation based on the value of their luggage, rather than the weight of their bags.

However, the main complaint received by the AUC regarding lost baggage is the lack of compensation offered by airlines, many of which expect to be provided with receipts for lost expensive goods before offering compensation – something that the AUC believes is “not practical” for passengers to supply.

Tina Tietjen, AUC Chairman, said: “The Montreal Convention, which came into force in 2004, and in which we carried much hope, has made little difference to settlements given to claimants for mishandled baggage. Airlines’ primary duty to passengers should therefore be to put into place systems that will mean they mishandle as few bags as possible. But if something does go wrong then they should also be prepared to compensate their passengers fairly.

“Complaints to the AUC show that passengers often struggle to get reasonable redress from airlines after the event. Airlines are still too quick to load risk onto the passenger.”

The AUC was set up by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) as a consumer watchdog for the airline industry, and has received more than 2,000 written complaints from air passengers since the 2004 Montreal Convention.

For more information about compensation for delayed, damaged or lost baggage, visit the AUC website.