Matching baggage system investment with airport growth

Matching baggage system investment with airport growth. At what point should a growing airport consider moving away from conveyor based sortation. As the world’s airports continue to see annual passenger growth of around 10%, the number of airports where larger capacity sortation is required is growing. Smaller airports will normally have a baggage system based around conveyors and make-up using carousels. These systems will typically vary from having some level of automated sortation allowing some sortation to the ability to provide full sortation. This approach to baggage systems has its limitations but the right support and targeted investment can provide surprisingly high capacities. For small airports delaying the move to more complex sortation approaches delivers a number of benefits including: Delaying major capital investment – replacing a whole baggage system can cost several million through to tens of millions. Delaying this investment can provide significant opportunity for airports to invest in other areas first such as passenger experience or other capacity enablers Reduced maintenance burden – conveyors, vertical sorts, carousels are all relatively easy components of a baggage system to maintain, this enables airports to employee smaller more cost effective maintenance teams rather than the larger more qualified teams required for sorters or cart systems Reduced energy costs – On demand running conveyors can be very energy efficient while sorters require to run continuously using much higher levels of energy Reduced manufacturer reliance – due to the reduced complexity both in the physical components and controls software conveyor based systems […]

Building 139 Transfer Baggage Facility

New transfer baggage facility designed in three phases now handling the Heathrow Terminal 3 transfer baggage operation. Designed and built in three main phases between 1997 and 2008 Build cost approx £20m. Concept and scheme design as well as full project coordination. Working alongside airlines, Millar Management were appointed by HAL to design the new facility to accommodate the bmi operation, when phase 2 went live in 2000 bmi bag losses dropped by 1m. The latest design phase was to accommodate the airline moves and the facility was extended and additional functionality added to accommodate the whole of the terminal 3 operation, at its peak handling more transfer bags than Terminal 5. Many design concepts were developed within the scheme that were replicated around Heathrow.