A door-to-door baggage service with standardized bag

Abstract

This master thesis provides a feasibility study of a door-to-door (d2d) baggage service with standardized bag. Many stakeholders are involved in the aviation industry and in order to implement such a service the consequences and requirements for the industry must be clear. One of these stakeholders is Vanderlande, global market leader for logistic process automation at airports. The study was structured by describing a current, next and afternext phase of development for the service. The analysis of the current situation includes a trend analysis, function analysis, stakeholder analysis and a journey map of both passenger and baggage. Interviews with various stakeholders provides information for further description of the current situation.

The results of this study show a door-to-door service with standardized bag consisting of 9 components which are essential for the service. Within each of these components variables are defined and the relations between the variables are presented in an Interaction Loop.

The Interaction Loop reveals the relations within a d2d service and indicates how the components affect the passenger journey in the end. The Interaction Loop can be applied as a tool for different parties within the industry, to indicate what their (future) role within d2d services can be. Although the Interaction Loop has increased insight in the complex issue, there are still many variables and interaction to be found.

Based on the variables and relations presented in the Interaction Loop, requirements for a standardized bag could be determined. The strength of the Interaction Loop here is that the motivation for certain requirements became very clear. Hence, the value of each requirement can be defined.

Current d2d baggage services indicate that the industry is already moving into the next phase of development. This has consequences for the development of the afternext, since the afternext needs to be implemented in the next. When the next is already present, the aviation industry should act, steering the next towards the desired afternext.