TRAVELLERS USING London Heathrow lose up to 900 laptops a week, according to research conducted on behalf of IT giant Dell. Carelessness on the part of passengers, rather than failings by airlines, are blamed for almost half the losses: 46 per cent of laptops go missing at the departure gates and in executive lounges. Much of it could be avoided if owners put external labels on the devices to identify them, researchers found.
The survey showed that 800,000 laptops are lost or stolen around the world each year. In Europe, 3,800 go missing every week from the continent's 24 busiest commercial airports, and 51 per cent are never found.
The survey highlights a worrying statistic: 65 per cent of business travellers don't know how to protect their confi dential data, which can include clients' personal information, and 40 per cent have not backed up their laptop's data elsewhere.
Laptop losses at Amsterdam Schiphol airport averaged 750 per week, 733 at Paris Charles de Gaulle and 385 at London Gatwick.