Few things are more annoying than discovering at the airport that your suitcase has gone astray. It is worth knowing that such mishaps can also be linked to the colour of your suitcase.
Summer is almost here, and many people are already getting ready for their holidays. While planning, it is worth paying attention to one small detail: the colour of your suitcase. According to the experience of Ryanair, among others, this factor plays a particularly large part in suitcases being mixed up – if you have not chosen the right colour, the likelihood of it getting lost also increases.
There is a very human reason for this: travellers choose simple, inconspicuous colours more often than average. According to one report, 40 per cent of all suitcases in the world come in timeless black and are also of the popular “hard-shell” type.
Choosing a dark suitcase is understandable from an aesthetic point of view: black is inconspicuous, does not clash with other colours and is considered standard in the business world too. For the human eye, however – which, despite the automation of airports, still plays a decisive role in baggage handling – lots of identical black suitcases cause problems. Every traveller can experience this for themselves when trying to fish their own out from countless other suitcases on the carousel.
As travel expert Jamie Frazer explained, because they are so common, black, hard-shell wheeled suitcases are the hardest for baggage handlers to identify, and as a result they are the ones most often lost. But it is not only airport staff who are easily confused by all this uniformity – travellers are too: at busy airports there is a particularly high risk of someone taking the wrong suitcase off the carousel.
Plain grey and blue versions are almost as risky, and Ryanair goes as far as to advise passengers to steer well clear of these three colours when buying a suitcase.
Stefan Schulte, CEO of Frankfurt Airport, shares this view: in his opinion, plain colours are unfortunate not only because they get mixed up, but also when airport staff have to find a lost suitcase, as with so many identical suitcases this is often a lengthy process.
It is better to choose bright suitcases in colours that stand out from the rest. Or at least arrive at the airport in good time, so that staff do not have to rush the loading – advises Turizmus.com, based on an article by Merkur.de.
Source: Turizmus.com