Air Canada has expanded its luggage tracking capabilities across Europe, giving travellers greater visibility and assurance over their checked baggage. As of this rollout, the airline now offers its Bag-Tracking feature for flights departing from key European cities, along with continuing to build on its global deployment.

This represents a significant step in improving the passenger experience through transparency and digital innovation.

What Is the New Bag-Tracking Feature?

The Bag-Tracking feature is an enhancement in the Air Canada mobile app that allows passengers to track their checked baggage in almost real time while the luggage moves through various stages of the journey. These stages typically include:

• Check-in and bag drop
• Loading onto the aircraft
• Any transfer or connection points
• Arrival and carousel delivery

Additional functionality includes a “What’s Next” feature, which informs users, for example, which baggage carousel to head to, or where in a transfer operation their bag is expected to be collected. If any delays occur, passengers receive notifications and can file a delayed baggage report directly through the app.

Cities and Regions Covered in Europe

The feature is now active for flights departing from the following European cities:

• London
• Paris
• Dublin
• Edinburgh
• Rome
• Milan
• Copenhagen

This selection of cities includes both major hubs and high-traffic routes. It’s part of a broader rollout; Air Canada had already implemented bag tracking in many parts of Canada and the US and is now extending it further globally.

Global Reach Beyond Europe

While the current focus is Europe, Air Canada’s bag tracking is not confined to there. Other international destinations where the feature is already available include:

This gives passengers on routes between Europe, North America, Latin America, and the Asia-Pacific region greater consistency in baggage visibility.

Benefits for Passengers

Air Canada’s new tracking feature offers several clear benefits:

1. Transparency & Peace of Mind
   Travellers can see where their baggage is at each stage—from drop-off to carousel. This helps reduce anxiety, especially when connecting through large or complex airports.
2. Timely Alerts & Issue Resolution
   If there are delays or other issues with luggage, users are notified via the app (in addition to standard text/email alerts). They can lodge a delayed baggage report directly through the app and receive status updates with a report number. Breaking Travel News
3. Guidance in Real-Time
   The “What’s Next” functionality helps travellers know exactly where to retrieve their bags or where to go during transfers. This reduces confusion and saves time upon arrival.
4. Consistency Across Routes
   As this is rolled out more widely, frequent fliers and those travelling across continents benefit from having the same or similar level of service and expectations on different legs of their journey.

Challenges & Considerations

While this is a strong move forward, there are some potential challenges and caveats:

• Airport Infrastructure Dependence: Tracking depends on regular scans of bags at various checkpoints (loading, transfer, arrival). If an airport lacks the needed scanning infrastructure, or if operations are delayed or disrupted, the tracking may lag or have gaps.
• Data Accuracy and Latency: Scans may occur at discrete points rather than continuous tracking. Thus, there may be intervals where the app shows no update, which could lead to concern among travellers used to more real-time tracking technology.
• User Adoption and Communication: For many passengers, even knowing when the service applies and how to use it (i.e., having the updated app, permissions, notifications enabled, etc.) is essential. Customer education will matter.
• Handling Exceptions: When baggage is truly lost, severely delayed, or mishandled, the tracking helps, but doesn’t prevent all mishaps. Proper policies, staffing, and response systems still need to be robust.

Implications for the Airline & the Industry

For Air Canada, the rollout is likely to yield a number of advantages:

• Competitive Differentiation: As airlines continue seeking ways to improve the traveller experience, baggage tracking is becoming more of a “must have” rather than “nice to have.” Offering this across more international routes can set Air Canada apart, especially for customers flying long-haul or with connections.
• Customer Satisfaction & Loyalty: Fewer lost or mishandled bags (or at least more visibility when things go wrong) generally translates to fewer customer complaints and higher satisfaction, which can feed into loyalty programs and positive word of mouth.
• Operational Insights: The infrastructure underlying tracking (scanners, app integration, data handling) can provide Air Canada with better metrics about baggage flow, delays, transfer bottlenecks etc. That data can be used to optimize operations.
• Pressures on Peers: This may push other carriers, especially those operating between Europe and North America or Asia, to accelerate their own baggage-tracking rollouts to keep up from both customer expectation and marketing perspectives.

What’s Next?

To fully realize the benefit of this service, Air Canada may consider:

• Extending the feature to more European cities, especially secondary or smaller ones, to ensure more widespread coverage.
• Improving the granularity of tracking, possibly integrating technologies (e.g. RFID, Bluetooth, or internet-of-things tags) for more continuous tracking.
• Enhancing the user interface, pushing proactive notifications (e.g., “your bag has landed, proceed to carousel 4”) and pre-emptive alerts if a connection appears at risk.
• Partnerships with airports or ground handling companies for faster scans, better data sharing, and more consistent service.

Conclusion

Air Canada’s rollout of its baggage-tracking feature across major European cities marks an important evolution in air travel’s push toward visibility, customer reassurance, and digital self-service. For passengers, it’s a welcome improvement—offering peace of mind, better information, and more control over what historically has been one of the most anxiety-inducing parts of flying: baggage handling.

While there are practical and technical limitations, the move sets a higher standard for airline baggage services. As this kind of feature becomes more common, both airports and airlines will need to step up operationally to match the expectations passengers now have for real-time tracking and seamless travel.