Reference diagram
Reference diagram
From the moment the passenger drops their bag at the counter until that same bag reaches its flight's departure carousel, both follow separate paths through the airport — with exact points where the system brings them back into contact.
Check-in · bag drop · tag issued
BSMPassenger screening
Waiting at gate
Aircraft access
Baggage inspection
Automated sorter (BHS)
Flight's departure carousel
BPM Last point visible to FlightSortRamp to the aircraft
Physical loading onto the aircraft
These states are pure traceability — none of them triggers anything on its own. The critical priority is a separate, purely time-based alert: it fires the moment fewer than 30 minutes remain before departure with baggage still in transit, usually before gate closure. It never waits for Departed — by then it would already be too late to act.
At the very moment the passenger checks in, the message that tells the sorting system this bag exists — and which flight it belongs to — is generated.
When the bag physically reaches the departure carousel assigned to its flight, the system logs the fact as done — not a prediction, but confirmation that it's ready to load.
Between check-in and delivery at the departure carousel, the bag passes through several different hands and systems — it's the stretch where operational visibility is most easily lost.
The Baggage Reconciliation System matches, before departure, which bags were loaded against which passengers boarded (ICAO Annex 17). If something doesn't add up, a Baggage Unload Message is issued and that bag is pulled before the flight closes.
FlightSort watches exactly that middle stretch — from the moment the bag is born at the counter to confirmation of its delivery at the departure carousel — and turns every system message into one clear number: how much baggage is still "in transit" and how much is already resolved, flight by flight, in real time.
Scope of this diagram: check-in → departure carousel