southwest airlines terminal kansas city international airport

“Car seats are the number one reason the line jams,” said Harris, who uses a two-way radio to notify ramp agents of the location of a jam. In a small room lined with computer monitors, controllers, like Cooper Harris, monitor the entire baggage handling system and the miles of conveyor lines to watch for any jams, which will stop the lines from moving the baggage. When all the bags for an assigned flight are loaded, a tug truck tows the carts to the plane, where more ramp agents stand ready to load the plane. Nearby, a baggage inspector, sitting in front of a large monitor, will have 45 seconds to view the digital images, diverting any suspicious items for further inspection.Īutomated bag tag readers route the travelers’ bags through the appropriate conveyors to a specific carousel where ramp agents load the baggage onto a cart. “These machines are $2 million apiece and it’s where every bag will have to pass through before it makes it to its final destination,” Shields said. “We have six X-ray machines here,” said Ryan Shields, a lead technician for Vandlerlande. “So as the bags come down, they can be for Southwest, United, American, Delta, Alaskan, Spirit,” he added.īefore being loaded onto a plane, every piece of baggage travels on a conveyor to a security scan room. “It is a unified system, a shared system,” said McMahon of the new baggage handling system. The automated baggage handling system, or BHS, is capable of moving more than 2,500 pieces of baggage an hour, and handles on average 8,000 to 11,000 pieces of luggage per day.ĭepending on the time of the year, baggage loads may increase to about 15,000 pieces a day as travelers head out during spring break and over the holidays, said Raymond McMahon, Vanderlande Industries Inc., site manager for Kansas City.

Vanderlande Industries, Inc., of Marietta, Georgia, designed and installed the system over a two-year period before the airport opened for travelers on February 28. Those travelers won’t see the two-and-a-half to three miles of conveyors that make up the $54 million state-of-the-art baggage handling system installed during the construction of the new airport. Thousands of those traveling to see the draft will take their first steps in Kansas City when they arrive at the new terminal. The NFL Draft, which kicks off Thursday in Kansas City, is expected to draw as many as 300,000 visitors.

The new single terminal at Kansas City International Airport is set to have what may be considered its coming out party to the rest of the world this week.

Southwest airlines terminal kansas city international airport