Virgin Atlantic has introduced AirTag tracking support, allowing passengers to share luggage location data with airline staff. Olivia Palamountain reports

Virgin Atlantic has announced that customers can now use the new "Share Item Location" feature to privately and securely share the location of their AirTag or Find My network accessory with the airline’s customer teams.

This new functionality enables Virgin Atlantic to locate delayed bags and reunite them with customers more quickly.

Corneel Koster, chief customer and operating officer, Virgin Atlantic, says: “We’re always looking for innovative solutions to ensure our customers enjoy the best possible experience with Virgin Atlantic”.

“We know many people already use AirTags or a Find My network accessory to keep updated on the location of their luggage. On the rare occasion, when operational issues or misconnecting flights may require bags to be located, our teams now have this shared source of information, so our customers have peace of mind on our progress. Virgin Atlantic has amongst the best baggage performance in the industry and welcomes this innovation from Apple”.

To share the location of their AirTag or Find My network accessory with the airline, customers around the world can first generate a Share Item Location link in the Find My app on their iPhone, iPad or Mac.

When customers make their missing bag report they can then share the link with the airport and baggage tracing teams who can view the live location of the bag and use it to reunite customers with their luggage.

For customers’ privacy and security, location sharing will automatically end as soon as a customer receives their bag, can be stopped by the customer at any time and will automatically expire after seven days.

Share Item Location is built on the Apple Find My network, a crowdsourced network of over one billion Apple devices that use Bluetooth wireless technology to detect missing devices or items nearby and report their approximate location back to the owner.

The entire process is end-to-end encrypted and anonymous, so no one else, not even Apple or Find My Network accessory manufacturers, can view an item’s location or information.