Has RFID Real-time Tracking of ULDs Been Implemented By Any Airlines?

If so, which ones?

—Name withheld

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In 2006, Air France-KLM undertook a project to test RFID-tagged unit load devices (ULDs)—large containers filled with baggage and cargo that are loaded onto planes. The carrier applied RFID labels made by French RFID specialist IER, and embedded with passive ultrahigh-frequency (UHF) EPC Gen 2 inlays from Avery Dennison, to 100 of its fleet of more than 6,000 ULDs in use at Paris-Charles De Gaulle Airport (see RFID Pilot Tracks Airline's Unit Load Devices). I do not believe the company deployed a ULD tracking system, however.

Munich Airport, the seventh busiest airport in Europe, is employing active RFID tags to track dollies that move ULDs around outdoor ramps, aprons and gate areas, but not the ULDs themselves (see Munich Airport Says RFID Improves Dolly Management).

I am unaware of any airline that is tracking ULDs via RFID, but any of our readers who might have information about such a project are invited to post information below.

—Mark Roberti, Founder and Editor, RFID Journal