"Florida airport fights baggage lags"

Saturday, March 11, 2006

Airport fights baggage lags
Lee looks at millions of dollars in system fixes
By Laura Ruane 
The South Florida News-Press
  

Glitches in automated baggage handling for departing flights at Southwest
Florida International Airport have officials working behind the scenes on a
fix that is expected to cost $5 million to $10 million.

"Once we start approaching the 1,600 (bags per hour) mark, the system starts
hiccuping," said Mark Fisher, development director for the Lee County Port
Authority. The goal is to achieve near-flawless performance of the system at
2,000 to 2,500 bags per hour.

Lee County commissioners meeting as the Board of Port Commissioners on
Monday will be asked to approve a $164,000 contract that would have the
subcontractor that installed the system work with an engineering firm to
come up with a cure for those hiccups. The actual overhaul isn't expected to
begin until fall. 

Safety has not been compromised, airport and security officials say. But
efficiency is another matter at the $438 million terminal complex that
opened in September. 

Signs that something is amiss with the high-tech system include: the
computer running the system occasionally "crashes," machines misread bag
tags, or luggage gets out of line on the roller coaster of conveyor belts
that travelers never see.

The resulting baggage backlogs occasionally have kept luggage from flying
with its owners and might be a factor in some delayed takeoffs. 

"I've heard people complain about it. I never check bags," said Bob
Schaeffer, a Sanibel resident and a frequent business flier.

On some departing flights from the new terminal, Schaeffer has been on
planes that delayed their departures by 10 to 15 minutes to wait on bags.
"The pilot will say 'We're waiting for a few more bags.' " 

It could be those tardy bags were checked in late, Schaeffer said, adding he
has no way of knowing.

To alleviate problems during peak travel months, the airport has
supplemented the automation with as many as 20 to 30 workers per day from
Elite Line Systems, an affiliate of system installer G&T Conveyor Co.

The current shortcomings, Fisher said, should come as no surprise. Southwest
Florida International was the sixth airport in the country since Sept. 11,
2001, to design and install an automated system for baggage screening. 

One of the very first - Jacksonville International - is rushing to get a new
$18 million setup in place before the 2006 holiday season, according to a
January report in the Florida Times-Union.

The Jacksonville upgrade aims not only at solving problems, but also will
accommodate greater bag totals in the future, said Christopher White,
Transportation Security Administration spokesman for the southeastern United
States. 

"We don't view it unusual at all to have to alter these systems in the first
year to 18 months of their use," White said.

Before Jacksonville, a faulty baggage system in Denver was a key reason that
city's new terminal complex opened two years late, in 1995.

The automated systems at Fort Myers and Jacksonville are radical departures
from pre-Sept. 11, 2001, technology. 

After the terrorist attacks on America, giant explosives detection machines
were crammed into terminals in awkward retrofits. At Southwest Florida
International's former terminal north of the runway, travelers first would
check in their bags. Then, they would have to schlep them over to the
machines operated by federal security agents.

Southwest Florida International's new system employs a network of conveyor
belts. Electronic beams combined with software programs read bag tags,
measure bag length and width, and adjust belt speeds. 

Based on 2005 flight activity, Southwest Florida International was expected
to handle as many as 15,000 bags per day during the peak winter travel
season.

The TSA last August certified its performance of 1,500 bags per hour as
acceptable for opening the airport.

Currently, the baggage system at the southeast Lee County airport is
handling an average of 1,500 bags per hour, Fisher said. At the most, it has
handled 1,750 bags per hour. 

With greater speed, however, come glitches. The system is intended to
smoothly shepherd a mix of bags destined for different airlines through
explosive detection machines, and then automatically funnel them to the
correct airline's sorting area.

After explosives screening, however, as many as 8 percent of the bags must
be diverted from the usual conveyor belt route - and driven by baggage tugs
to each airline bag makeup area. These diversions are most common, Fisher
said, during busy periods when the system is pushing to operate at speeds
exceeding 1,700 bags per hour. 

The total tab for improving the system isn't known, "but early estimates are
that it will cost $5 million to $10 million for us to get the system
operating as it should be," Fisher said.

Costs will be paid for with revenue from airport operations and, if
applicable, through federal or state grants. No property tax dollars are
used for capital improvements at either Page Field or Southwest Florida
International or for the airports' operation.

Fisher didn't have an exact figure, but said the original automated system
for the new terminal cost $15 million to $20 million. That cost included
making the baggage handling area on the terminal's airfield side 30 feet
deeper after the new terminal was more than 90 percent designed. 

To meet the stringent post-Sept. 11, 2001, security rules, county
commissioners in April 2003 approved several design changes, including that
of the baggage system.

"We're fortunate to be able to build this terminal for a new era of air
travel," airport director Bob Ball said at the time.

Click on the link below for a detailed explainer of the baggage system

 http://www.news-press.com/assets/pdf/A421668311.PDF

Attached Photo:

Skycap Billy Katsaris check in bags curbside Friday at Southwest Florida
International Airport.

bilde.jpg