Have you ever wondered how the airport staff makes sure that every baggage reaches the right plane? The baggage tag is that piece of technology which ensures the delivery of right bag to the right plane. Apart from your name and destination, there is also a 10 digit barcode which has information of your airline, a unique number given to your bag and one digit which has a special message encoded, like high priority.
Once the tag is attached, the bag joins several other bags in the airport railway which is operated by 23,000 motors. In this large network, the handles recognize the baggage by the metal tray under the baggage holder tray. On the side of the tray, there is a unique scannable code. The code on these trays is paired with the code on your baggage which tells where your bag is going.
The instructions from the computers tell the trays to travel according to its preprogrammed route. After traveling all this distance, the baggage has to reach a point where they need to be X-rayed. But if the bag is x-rayed while still on the metal chase, it will not be able to detect anything. So a machine picks up the baggage from the trays and places them on the belt to be x-rayed. When they are x-rayed and cleared, they return to their respective chase and continue their journey to their planes. When it reaches the gate, it already has covered 6 miles.
Pretty cool, isn’t it?