Fears of luggage never being seen again when flying could soon be a thing of the past.

A pair of major IT companies have teamed up to create a system that will allow airline passengers to track baggage from mobile devices in real time and via social media websites.

SITA and Amadeus have said that the breakthrough could be ready for use as early as next year for flights at more than 50 airports around the world. Officials from IT firm Amadeus have said the goal of the project is to dramatically reduce the number of delayed and lost bags. 2010 saw some 29 million checked items lost.

The system, dubbed by SITA as BagMessage, is expected to be utilized by both air carriers and airport operators worldwide and should help to ease phone and email traffic from passengers inquiring about lost baggage.

According to a recent survey from JD Power, travellers frequently cite lost luggage as one of the most frustrating aspects of travelling. The report also said that in excess of 34 per cent of travellers had experienced problems with lost or delayed baggage at some point.

Meanwhile, both airport operators and air carriers continue to try to streamline baggage handling; most recently, Qantas and KLM have begun new strategies that allow passengers to apply their own baggage tags and drop the luggage themselves.