INSIDE DXB'S BAGGAGE HANDLING ECOSYSTEM

Dubai International Airport (DXB) has already handled more than 63 million bags this year. Yet despite the staggering volume, the airport and the baggage team delivers an astonishing 99.8 per cent accuracy rate.

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It records just two mishandled bags per 1,000 passengers. The global industry standard, by comparison, is 6.3 for every 1,000 passengers.

How does one of the busiest airports in the world beat those odds? Is it cutting-edge technology no other hub can match? Artificial intelligence? A fully automated process? DXB has all of that, but the real secret lies elsewhere.

At the heart of the operation is John Dyett, Vice-President of Baggage Service Delivery at Dubai Airports. “The principal reason why we are world class at baggage handling at DXB is the team that we have here,” Dyett told Gulf News during an exclusive behind-the-scenes tour of Terminal 3's (T3) vast baggage tunnels.

“We have a team of experts across the whole baggage community who work seamlessly together to ensure that our customers have the best experience ever at Dubai. So, really, the biggest, most important factor is the team working together, using their expertise, using their knowledge to ensure that everybody gets their bag.”

It all plays out in a hidden world no passenger ever gets to see. While travellers walk from the plane to immigration and wait by the carousel, beneath their feet stretches a sprawling subterranean ecosystem — a labyrinth of tunnels, conveyor belts, and sorting systems. To the uninitiated, it feels endless.

How it works

Deep underground T3 sits the baggage control room — the beating heart of DXB's baggage operation. It is here that the scale and precision of the airport's vast underground network come to life on giant screens filled with data, diagrams, and live video feeds.