NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - The airline industry will lose approximately 30 million bags this year as the number of passengers continues to climb, according to a study published Monday.

With an estimated 2 billion individuals opting for air travel this year, roughly 1 percent of travelers' bags become lost during their flight experience, the Swiss airline consulting firm SITA said in a report.

While the average wait time for flyers to get back their suitcase or garment bag is just over 31 hours, some owners never see their property again. Of those bags that are lost, 204,000 a year are stolen or never recovered, SITA said.

The airline industry spends roughly $2.5 billion a year trying to reconcile the lost luggage problem, according to the consulting group.

SITA said the biggest single cause for lost or delayed baggage happened during the process of transferring from one flight to another. Ticketing errors, passenger bag switches, security snafus as well as tagging gaffes were among the other leading causes for lost bags.

The report also noted that the trend is increasing due to congestion at the airport, security regulations as well as higher passenger and baggage volumes.

"The industry needs more sophisticated baggage reconciliations systems and greater use of self-service such as check-in through kiosks and on the Web," Francesco Violante, the managing director for SITA said in a statement. "This will all help to simplify travel, reduce delays and baggage misconnections."

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