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Tags keep watchful eye on luggage
 RFID tags are being added to luggage at Hong Kong International Airport. QUICKVOTEYOUR E-MAIL ALERTS(CNN) -- Lost luggage could become a thing of the past if RFID technology being tested at Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) takes off. Tiny microchips are currently being added to luggage belonging to the 40 million passengers who check into flights at the airport every year. Phase one of the project costs $6.5 million. The chips, called radio frequency identification (RFID) tags, have all the details the airport needs to know about getting the bags to and from their final destination, aiming to reduce the number of missing bags and making it easier for travelers to be reunited with their mislaid luggage. Yiu Fai Wong, head of technical services at HKIA, said RFID means the airport can scan luggage in bulk He said the trial was setting a precedent for testing and implementation to take place at other airports worldwide. HKIA was voted the world's best airport in 2005. Spokesman for the International Air Transport Association Anthony Concil told CNN that the process to retrieve lost luggage can be laborious. "If you have a misplaced piece of luggage today, someone has to physically stand next to it, or the bag has to pass in front of the reader before we know where it is," he said. "What RFID does is that the bag proactively says, 'I'm here,' and then we can go and find it much quicker." Elie Simon of TAGSYS, which makes RFID tags, says that one of the benefits of the technology is how easily it can be integrated within the existing airport infrastructure. "The beauty of RFID is that nothing has to be changed in order to introduce these processes in the airport. It's just, we simply add a little bit of electronics on the luggage tag and we put reading system stations all the way through," he said. But the tags -- at around 10 cents apiece -- are not cheap, which is slowing down implementation. On top of that, there is capital investment, including scanners on each carousel, at check-in desks and transit points -- all of which are big ticket items at a time when efficiency and cost cutting are the buzzwords of aviation. In 2005, 30 million bags were either temporarily or permanently misplaced in transit. 
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