Those airport workers are more aware of what Ponemon said accounts for the lion's share of the 12,000 laptops lost each week: Laptops that are temporarily lost in airports but quickly recovered. One example would be someone leaving an airport restaurant or security checkpoint without his or her laptop, but then promptly returns to claim it. That incident is not reported in official statistics, he said.

Ponemon said he stands by his finding that 12,000 laptops are lost at airports each week, but said he plans to revise the study to better explain its methodology. He also said there is a need to clarify the report's assertion that "only 33 per cent of the laptops lost and found in airports are reclaimed."

Ponemon said he believes the recovery rate of lost laptops may be as high as 85 per cent because laptop owners who are temporarily separated from their computers are likely to be reunited with them.

Even for those laptops that turn up in an airport lost and found, Washington Airport authorities say the recovery rate is high. At Dulles, 37 of the 43 laptops lost in 2007 were returned to owners; at Reagan National, 269 of the 276 lost laptops were also returned. Ponemon said his study reflects the varying rates of success, depending on how aggressive individual airports are in reuniting laptops with owners.

Ponemon said he is planning a second study to help validate the results of this laptop loss study by surveying business travelers about their own experiences with laptops.