‘Lawless Baggage Claims’: The Airports Where Bags are Stolen Most

It’s a recurring joke among frequent fliers: airports are a bastion of tight security everywhere except baggage claim. Once you get to the carousel, all bets are off — bags are basically free for the taking. While safety and security codes are strictly enforced almost everywhere at the airport, they tend to rely on the honour system when it comes to claiming your checked bags. 

AirAdvisor, an airline compensation organization compiled information from 53 airports around the world to determine which airports are the most “lawless,” determining where your bag is most likely to be stolen. The good news is that Canadian airports aren’t too high on the list. Vancouver International Airport (YVR) is the top Canadian airport to show up on the list, but it doesn’t even crack the top 30, with a ranking of 32. The next Canadian airport to show up is Montreal-Trudeau (YUL), at 34, followed by Calgary International (YYC) at 35, Edmonton International (YEG) at 38 and Ottawa International (YOW) at 44. Toronto Pearson (YYZ) was not included on the list. 

A number of factors were included in the methodology, which determined how likely a bag was to be stolen. To discover the most lawless baggage claims in the world, AirAdvisor gathered overall Google ratings data for each airport, total passenger figures, local searches for lost luggage, negative Yelp reviews and the average walk time from the gate to the baggage reclaim. These were used to create a weighted index. So while Montreal-Trudeau actually logged fewer lost-luggage searches than Calgary, (3,250 against Calgary's 3,720), YUL came out as riskier, based on volume of annual passengers and its low Google ratings, as well as the long walk from the gate, which gives thieves more time to snatch a bag. 

The top spots on the list went to some of the world's busiest hubs: London Heathrow (LHR), Charles de Gaulle International Airport (CDG) and Dubai International (DXB). The safest? Darwin International Airport / RAAF Darwin (DRW) in Australia, Cardiff Airport (CWL) in Wales and Mexico’s Tijuana International Airport / General Abelardo L. Rodríguez International Airport (TIJ).

 

 

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