Today’s airports are getting overcrowded as the airplane travel is becoming extremely popular these days. The business of aviation is ever changing. With the advancement in technology, the aviation business is also going hi-tech and the passengers expect everything to be in tune at the airports. The waiting times, the pedestrian flows, process times, baggage services, flight times are some of the most important tasks of every airport. While developing the infrastructure of an airport, the designers and architectures face major challenges as everything should provide sufficient capacity to the passengers. In addition, all the safety requirements must be met at the airport.
Baggage handling plays a major role in the airport quality and with the increase in the competition; a lot of pressure can be seen on the baggage handling system of most of the airports. The current infrastructure of an airport must be used in an efficient way during all the operations of an airport. There is a complex challenge when there are thousands of passengers going every day and taking proceedings within a short time. The duty rosters of the staff are also decided based on the analysis of the queuing and process times.
Improving the efficiency and flexibility of ground handling to limit the costs and reduce the delays in the scheduled flights is one of the major opportunities for the airline industry. The transfer of bags between flights is one of the main causes for the delay in the luggage and the flight. According to the US Bureau of Transportation, the main reason for 28.8 million of delay in the flight in 2007 was caused by the following factors-
Baggage loading
Aircraft cleaning
Aircraft fuelling
Maintenance or crew problems
The above problems in flight delays highlight a global issue for airlines all over the world. Baggage handling system is the most crucial from all of the above problems. Along with the increase in the number of airplane travellers, the volume of baggage in the air carriers has also increased in the past decade. It is one of those systems that can truly make the passengers happy. A perfect baggage handling system can make a difference in the ability of an airport to attract a huge number of passengers.
The baggage mishandling can cost millions of dollars to an airport and a correct system not only helps to reduce the costs but also contributes to the passenger comfort.
A baggage handling system is similar to a conveyor system that is installed in all airports. The checked-in luggage is transported from the ticket counters to the areas from where they will be loaded into the airplanes. The baggage handling system also transports the checked-in luggage from the airplanes to the baggage claim area or to those areas from where they will be transported to another plane if the passengers are changing their flights. The main function of the baggage handling system are-
Detection of luggage jams
Avoid overloading of luggage
Load balancing in order to evenly distribute the volume of the bags between the conveyors
Counting and tracking of the bags
Automatic scanners are used to scan the labels on the bags. The conveyors that are equipped with sorting machines automatically route the bags to the gate. According to Nair, the main jobs of the baggage handling system are –
Moving the bags from the check-in counter to the departure gate.
Moving the bags from one terminal to another during the transfers.
Moving the bags from the arrival gate to the baggage claim area from where the passengers are able to get their bags.
There are 3 different jobs between the check-in and the baggage make-up –
Early bag storage
Identification and sorting
Baggage screening
The baggage management system performs its operations at the time of departure and arrival of a flight (Nair, 2014). In order to ensure that the bags always travel with the passengers, it is important to handle inbound and outbound baggage quickly and reliably.
Outbound Baggage
The departure of a flight includes carrying the baggage to the check-in counter. The check-in involves the weighing of the baggage and checking the tickets as well. A linear counter and a baggage conveyor are used for carrying the bags of the passengers. After check-in, the baggage is taken to the area from where it will be sorted and ready for transporting to the airplane. The sorting of the bags can be completed in three different ways-
Manually – the employee or a worker sorts the baggage as they arrive.
Semi-automated – the worker or the employee reads the label on the bag and add the details into a computer. Its helps in redirecting the bag to the correct area.
Fully automated – the labels on the bags are automatically recognized and it is known as the mechanical recognition of the baggage tag. It labels are read using the bar code and laser beams. After the recognition, the baggage is moved on to the correct loading area. This allows for matching of a bag with the passenger and also ensures that there is no unaccompanied baggage.
The check-in bags are processed by adding tags to them, labelling the fragile items or bags and marking of bags that are received in a damaged state at the airport.
The check-in operation involves the counting of the baggage as well as the number and weight of the bags is limited to a particular amount. Most of the airlines charge the passengers if they are carrying an extra amount of luggage apart from their allowed one. The passengers are not allowed to take heavy items to the cabin.
Inbound Baggage
In contrast to the outbound baggage system, inbound baggage involves unloading the baggage on the arrival of a flight. It is a good service to keep the bags ready on the arrival of the passengers and in order to ensure this, a fast and efficient delivery of baggage from the aircraft to the claim area in the terminal is required. All the baggage from the aircraft is transported to the terminal airside where the sorting of the bags is performed. After the sorting of the bags, the baggage is load onto the claim devices from where the passengers can claim their baggage from the carousels.
Most of the international airports have multiple carousels at the arrival halls, whereas the domestic arrival halls may have non-passengers roaming around the carousels and it may cause congestion of that area.
Transfer Baggage
The baggage handling is relatively a simple process at the small airports, but a number of factors are responsible for making the baggage handling a complex process at the international and big airports. The complexity can significantly affect the costs and the quality of service as well.
After the processing of the baggage on the arrival (inbound baggage) and the departure (outbound baggage), they are taken to the aircraft using baggage carts. One of the problems with baggage cart is that it may contain poorly secured items and may require protection from bad weather conditions as well.
Most of the domestic and international airports handle a significant amount of transfer baggage that may introduce the sorting problem. A risk of congestion and routing problems can also arise from the large volume of baggage at the terminal. The transfer of baggage from and to the aircraft can also be affected by the size of the airport, as there is less time left for the sorting and handling of the baggage.
In order to ensure a smooth running of the inbound and outbound processes, there are normally five parties involved in the handling of the baggage (Scholing, 2014). Each of these parties may put different demands on the process and may generate conflicts in the processes as well (Scholing, 2014).
Passengers – they always expect a reliable and hassle-free process, along with freedom of carrying more baggage size and weight.
Airport – the airports always tend to achieve highest quality and performance at minimum expenses. Quality in baggage handling is a key factor for them as passengers always expect clean baggage transfers.
Handling agents – the main focus of the handling agents is on the costs. Easy processing of items is what they expect from the airports.
Security personnel – the main objective of the security agents is to handle the baggage screening processes. In-line security is what they expect from the airport along with enough area for clean baggage handling as well.
Flights – the flights tend to combine the turnaround time and the satisfaction of passengers at a minimal cost. The costs and charges of all the error rates are handled by the airlines.
The airports need an efficient way to accurately move the baggage from the inbound airlines to the connecting flights. A dispatcher is used to organize the tug drivers. Manual assignments are given to the tug drivers by the dispatcher that helps them know the location to pick the bags and to which flights they need to be delivered. This is the traditional approach of picking the baggage and transporting them to the connecting flights.
The major disadvantage of this approach is that a dispatcher needs to consider a number of variables to create route efficiency. The variables can be the number of bags on each tug driver, the number of areas the tug driver need to cover and the number of tug drivers to use for handling baggage. Due to these variables, it becomes difficult to calculate the exact number of calculation by the dispatcher as the optimization of the process is the most important.
In order to overcome this disadvantage, a state of the art system is needed that can quickly and efficiently transport the baggage to the connecting flights. The assignment and routing of the baggage that is to be transferred also need to be automated. The tug drivers should also receive all the changes to the routes if any in order to make the baggage handling process faster. The new assignment should also be immediately assigned to the tug driver as soon as the current assignment is finished.
An automatic dispatch system is needed to electronically transfer the baggage to the airlines and also improve the current methods of baggage handling. The software or the system should consist of a computer environment that is used by the dispatch and tug clients. By accessing a software module in a distributed computer environment, the dispatch client starts the transfer of the baggage. This process starts before the arrival of the inbound flight. The software can also access the number of passengers, the baggage information and the connecting flights of the passengers. This system can prove to be the most efficient and reliable system for baggage handling. Different routes and their combinations can also be easily created by the system, unlike the traditional approach which is time-consuming and unreliable as well.
The Denver international airport has a modern baggage handling system (Nice, 2001). The system has a modern and efficient technology to transfer the bags from the check-in to the departure gate of the airport (Nice, 2001). The system includes the following –
DCVs or Destination Coded Vehicles – these are automatic carts that are used to load and unload the bags.
Scanners – automatic scanners are available to scan the labels on the baggage.
Conveyors – these are equipped with sorting machines and junctions that help the bags to automatically route to the gate (Nice, 2001).
When working on the design of the baggage handling system, it is important to analyze the behaviour of the system during the peak hours such as the effects of long queues and the waiting times on the baggage processing and the effect of changes in the scheduling times of the airlines.
References
Nice, K. (2001). How Baggage Handling Works. HowStuffWorks. Retrieved 16 April 2016,
Scholing, R. (2014). Baggage handling: Achieving operational excellence. International
Airport Review. Retrieved 16 April 2016, from http://www.internationalairportreview.com/16104/airport-extra/baggage-handling-achieving-operational-excellence/
Nair, A. (2014). Airport Baggage Handling System. Slideshare.net. Retrieved 16 April 2016,
