Blockchain in the Aviation Industry: A Decentralized Solution to the Transparency Issue in Baggage Handling

The aviation industry has experienced tremendous growth in recent decades and is expected to recover and surpass pre-covid traveller numbers by 2024 (IATA, 2018, 2022a). This expansion has put additional strain on airport capacity and operations. However, one of the most important aspects of the flying experience—secure and reliable baggage handling—continues to rely on legacy technology from the previous century. Baggage handling, as to many other operations in the aviation industry, involves many stakeholders. These stakeholders collaborate to maintain a complex logistic chain of distributed activities at international locations, integrating multiple companies and airports and coordinating decentralized subcontractors. To accommodate the growing number of passengers, this chapter presents a transformative prototype of blockchain-based baggage handling in airport logistics. As a consequence, the digitally re-designed baggage handling process may provide transparency through decentralized stakeholder management and real-time traceability.