Subject: [NEXTEL-1] RFID to be Used for Baggage Tracking in Japan

From: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 17 Jul 2003 21:35:26 -0400

RFID to be Used for Baggage Tracking in Japan

A new organization in Japan, the Advanced Airport Systems Technology Research
Consortium (ASTREC), was formed to further the use of technology in airports.
ASTREC is working on an RFID system to track baggage on airplanes. The project
will last for five years and will track baggage not only in the airports and but
also from the passenger's home to their destinations. Its goal is to make it
easier for passengers by freeing them from lugging baggage through check-in lines
and around the airport.

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Wireless Tags to Offer Hands-Free Air Travel

July 17, 2003 (TOKYO) -- Utilization of RFID tags
attached to baggage carried onto an airplane soon wil
l go into high gear.

On July 11, a total of 16 companies and organizations,
including the Narita Airport Authority (NAA), Japan
Airlines Co, Ltd (JAL), and All Nippon Airways Co,
Ltd (ANA), held an inaugural meeting of the "Advanced
Airport Systems Technology Research Consortium
(ASTREC)," in order to approve the establishment of
the consortium.

The consortium, which has a total of 58 member firms,
is not only sponsored by the airline-related industry, but
also by other firms, including Omron Corp, Dai Nippon
Printing Co, Ltd, Fujitsu Ltd, Matsushita Electric
Industrial Co, Ltd, and distribution firms, such as Sagawa
Express Co, Ltd and Fukuyama Transporting Co, Ltd
. In a week or two, it will apply for government
approval of ASTREC's establishment.
From fiscal 2003 to 2008, that is, for five years,
ASTREC will work on the technological
development and demonstrative experiments of a
distribution system of baggage carried on a plane
using radio frequency identification (RFID) tags.
It aims to cover not only baggage sorting in airports,
but from a passenger's home to their destinations.
For example, baggage delivery to an airport by a
courier company will be integrated with a check-in
system to an airplane. It will examine a system in
which baggage handed to a courier company is
directly carried to an airplane, without being handed
back to the passenger. With this service, once
handing baggage over to a courier company at home,
a passenger will be able to travel "hands-free"
until they get out of a plane. Until now, baggage
handed to a courier company needed to be picked
up at an airport, and be carried along while lining
up at a check-in counter.

As the first demonstrative experiment, from the end
of fiscal 2003 for six months, it will conduct a test
operation using international passenger airplanes of
JAL and ANA. Connecting route flights at Amsterdam's
Schiphol Airport, New York's John F. Kennedy
International Airport and Singapore's Changi
Airport are included in the experiment. Hands-free
travel operation, security reliability and other
factors will be investigated.

NAA will aim for the commercial launch at the
New Tokyo International Airport (Narita Airport)
in 2005 or 2006. First, a baggage sorting system
using RFID tags will be implemented in Terminal
One, South Wing, which is currently under renovation.

http://neasia.nikkeibp.com/wcs/leaf?CID=onair/asabt/news/257686

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