Joshua Notley

This project has been in partnership with British Airways. My research revealed that baggage handling is the biggest painpoint for the customer, airline and airport. The processes are 'inefficient and inconvenient' for all involved because 'regulatory constraints, long-established practices and outdated infrastructure have hindered innovation and delivered a dehumanised experience', (Arup, 2016).

With the inevitable increase in populations, of which an increasingly larger percentage will be elderly, the current journey will eventually become antiquated and fail the customers of tomorrow. We cannot simply solve this growth with infrastructure and building ourselves out of the situation. And so, in order to create a journey that does cater to the growing demands of customers for tomorrow, we actually need to completely re-think the baggage handling process and consequently the customer journey. 

And so, this led me to the creation of Weightless by British Airways – because you and your bag’s journey do not end at the airport, neither should our service. 

Weightless is a baggage delivery service that provides a seamless journey through and beyond the airport, enabling the customer to skip baggage reclaim and meet their bag at home. Through early prototyping, my research identified that ageing customers and people with disabilities often struggle with the end part of the journey, from having to take their bags off of the carousel to getting home. Luggage is often heavy for the more senior traveller, and in the case of a visually impaired person, it’s hard to identify one’s bag from another without having to ask for help. Weightless completely removes the hassle and inconvenience of luggage from the user's journey, and therefore provides them with more independence. As the service scales up, it will eventually become available to other customer typologies who would also benefit from the service for different reasons.