British Airways was once again named Britain’s worst airline for mishandling baggage, and the second worst in Europe.

The airline mishandled 1.14 million bags in 2007, an average 26.5 bags per 1,000 passengers, topped only by TAP Air Portugal, which mishandled 27.8 bags per 1,000 passengers.

The figure includes all complaints made by passengers whose bags did not make it to the baggage carousel at their destination. According to the Association of European Airlines, which released the figures, an average one in 2,000 delayed bags will then be lost for good.

The AEA’s 33-strong membership includes most of Europe’s major carriers. However, Virgin Atlantic and Aer Lingus were among the members that didn’t submit figures for 2007.

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BACKGROUND

• Chaos over baggage rule change

• BA admits baggage charges 'too high'

• Monarch joins the charging crowd

• Insurance claims for lost luggage up by 40%

• Lost luggage auctions: where to find your bag

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Also absent are low cost carriers such as Ryanair and easyJet, although the former publishes its own baggage figures, which tend to be less than one bag delayed or lost per 1,000 passengers.

Worst offending airlines for mishandling luggage are unlikely to be low cost carriers, according to the Air Transport Users Council (AUC), which claims that 61 per cent of mishandled baggage complaints are related to connecting passengers. This is why BA, KLM, Alitalia and Air France are among the airlines that mishandled most luggage in 2007 according to the airline consumer watchdog association.

Bmi was seventh in the table, mishandling an average 17 bags per 1,000 passengers. Both Bmi and BA blame last year’s security alert, which limited hand luggage to one item of baggage and led to record numbers of bags being processed at Heathrow.

BA argues that next year’s move to Terminal 5, which has state-of-the-art baggage handling facilities, should bring down the amount of mishandled baggage, but the AUC is sceptical.

“BA said the same thing to us last year,” AUC spokesman James Freemantle told Times Online, “and they didn’t get better in 2007. With Terminal 5 opening in March it gives them no excuse not to get better because the terminal has bigger and more sophisticated baggage handling capabilities.”

New baggage handling technology is also being introduced at Terminal 3, where the airports operator BAA has begun trials of using Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) baggage tags to monitor bag location. The trial is currently involving only Emirates passengers but could be extended if it is deemed successful.

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