CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Despite recent improvement, US Airways remains the worst major airline for mishandling bags and consistently trails the industry average for such reports.

Charlotte's dominant carrier also lags compared with itself, with more mishandled baggage reports in 2007 than in the previous year.

While US Airways had roughly the same number of passengers through November of each year, travelers filed nearly 38,000 more reports in 2007 -- a 10 percent increase.

Along with being the airline's largest hub, Charlotte is the last stop for luggage that is lost or unclaimed across the country and abroad. In a warehouse at the Charlotte airport, a handful of US Airways employees each day try to reunite several hundred suitcases, duffels and other bags with their owners.

Earlier this month, Jessica Gifford flew on US Airways from San Francisco to Charlotte to visit family. Gifford lives in Alaska and had packed belated Christmas gifts from that state in a bag that was left off her flight.

For four days, Gifford said, she waited for the bag. Only after Gifford left her mother's home in Asheville for her return trip did the bag show up there, she said.

"I am not one of those angry people. I am sad," Gifford said, adding that her return trip was "the last flight I ever intend to take with this airline."

US Airways had 8.37 mishandled baggage reports per 1,000 passengers from January to November of last year, according to U.S. Department of Transportation data; December numbers will be released next month. That's higher than both the industry average of 6.86 and the airline's 2006 rate of 7.66.

Mishandled baggage usually follows an airline's on-time performance, and US Airways struggled in 2007 with late flights, said Kerry Hester, vice president for customer service planning.

In addition to a summer that saw a record number of travelers, US Airways had significant flight delays with winter storms in February and computer glitches related to the merger of two reservations systems in March. As a result, the airline trailed all of its competitors for on-time performance through the first 11 months of the year.

More than half of the baggage-handling errors happened at the carrier's hubs, including Charlotte, Hester said. Those airports don't have as efficient sorting and security screening systems as hubs for other airlines, she said.

"Our hub technology and infrastructure is well behind our competitors," said Hester, who worked at Northwest Airlines until September.

Although US Airways has discussed new sorting systems with airports, there's no timetable to make upgrades, Hester said. The carrier recently appointed new executives to oversee operations in Philadelphia -- its international gateway but also a notorious trouble spot for flight delays and mishandled bags.

US Airways also is in the middle of upgrading its baggage scanning system, Hester said, which will make it easier to reroute bags that end up at the wrong airport. Within a couple of years, she said, airline employees will be able to track bags similar to the way FedEx tracks packages.

Some airline analysts have expressed concern about how labor negotiations at US Airways have affected performance. More than two years after the old US Airways merged with America West Airlines, multiple labor groups, including baggage handlers, haven't agreed with the carrier on unified contracts.

But Hester said labor issues weren't a reason for the airline's poor baggage marks.

"Our employees take a lot of pride in what they do," she said, although acknowledging, "We have some recovery to do."

Landing in Charlotte

US Airways checks about 24 million bags a year, spokeswoman Michelle Mohr said, and 0.05 percent -- one out of 2,000 -- end up at the Charlotte warehouse.Usually, workers match lost bags with passengers. More than 80 percent are reunited with customers within a day, and about 92 percent within three days.

After that, an unclaimed bag goes to the warehouse. Located near the air cargo center at Charlotte/Douglas International, the 6,000-square-foot building has anywhere from a few hundred to 1,000 bags depending on the time of year, said Melody Andersen, director of US Airways' central baggage resolution office.

More than half are returned to owners within a few days, Andersen said. Employees look for contact information, then enter as many details about a bag and its contents into the airline's computer system in hopes of matching a report filed by a passenger.

"The biggest breakdown we find is there's just nothing unique about that customer's bag," she said.

Indeed, Andersen said, the most common bags in the warehouse are black rolling suitcases packed with clothes and other common items. Another item that turns up regularly is inexpensive folding baby strollers that many owners never report missing.

The most unusual item? Probably crutches, said Andersen, who admitted to wondering why someone would need them before a flight but not afterward.

"I joke that maybe we're the healing airline," she said.

Where never-claimed bags go

US Airways keeps bags at the warehouse for at least 90 days while trying to return them to customers. Employees regularly search for clues about owners and try to contact them once identified, Andersen said, and in some cases have called people about bags that weren't reported missing.

If there's no match, US Airways gives a bag to a charity or sells it to companies that may resell the bag and its contents, Mohr said. Anderson and Mohr declined to name those companies, but Mohr said the policy is standard for the airline industry, and that a very small number of bags are sold.

In Gifford's case, Mohr said US Airways contacted her three times with updates on her missing bag, which was located shortly after it arrived at the warehouse. Gifford said she learned the bag had been found while she waited for a connecting flight in Seattle and "threw myself a happy-dance party at the pay phone."

Back in Charlotte, travelers on Friday dealt with more typical -- and hopefully less stressful -- missing bag issues.

Daniel Yoon, a photographer who lives in Newton, arrived from New York shortly after 9 a.m., only to learn his bag was still at La Guardia Airport. Yoon, 33, said it was the first time that one of his bags had been lost, and that a US Airways employee said it would be delivered later in the day and gave him a number to call if it wasn't.

Unlike Gifford and her made-in-Alaska gifts, Yoon wasn't worried about leaving the airport without his luggage.

"Nothing's so important," he said, "that I need it right away."

Tips to get your luggage back

US Airways advises travelers to do the following in case their luggage is misplaced.

• Make sure a bag has your name, address and phone number -- including mobile number -- on a luggage tag and somewhere inside the bag.

• Tie a ribbon around the bag's handle or make some other distinctive marking on the exterior.

• Be ready to describe your bag -- color, size and manufacturer -- and its contents in detail for the missing baggage report.

• Don't pack valuables, especially anything fragile, in case the bag is shipped to multiple airports or the Charlotte warehouse before being returned.