DENVER - Southwest Airlines recently awarded Leonardo a $27 million contract to provide a new baggage handling solution with cross-belt sorter technology for its transfer bag facility at Denver International Airport. The Leonardo solution will remove a labor-intensive, manual sortation and tail-to-tail transfer bag approach. With the reshaping of its baggage handling system, the airline aims to guarantee faster connection times, accommodate tight flight schedules and enhance capacity to handle future passenger volume growth, Airport Business reports. Continue reading original article.
The Military & Aerospace Electronics take:
4 March 2024 -The baggage handling system (BHS) for Southwest in Concourse C will be Leonardo’s first baggage handling system at a U.S. airport. Estimated project completion is mid-2025. The technology is already installed in airports throughout Europe and Asia including Hong Kong International, Paris Charles De Gaulle, Orly, Frankfurt, Rome Fiumicino Airport, Milan Malpensa, Zurich, Genève, Lyon airports and others.
The U.S. BHS market is predominantly conventional with lots of conveyors, horizontal diverters, vertical diverters, which are very mechanical in nature and susceptible to jams, low performance and high operations and maintenance costs, said Ravi Singh, Head of Business Development & Sales (BHS) - North America, Leonardo Automation. According to Singh, Leonardo's cross-belt sorter Multisort Baggage Handling System (MBHS) offers advantages over conventional systems including enhanced accuracy, increased sorting speed, and improved scalability. The MBHS technology will enable Southwest to experience improvements in operational efficiency, automatic precise sortation of transfer bags, reduced operator workload, and elimination of existing pain points.
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Jamie Whitney, Senior Editor
Military + Aerospace Electronics
