January/February 2024 - 33

BAGGAGE HANDLING
AUTHOR AviationPros Staff
Southwest Awards
Leonardo Its First
U.S. Airport Baggage
Handling Contract
Cross-belt sorter technology aims to reduce
baggage mishandlings.
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.
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,
Paris-Orly, Frankfurt, Rome Fiumicino,
Milan Malpensa, Zurich, Genève, Lyon
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 crossbelt
sorter Multisort Baggage Handling
System (MBHS) offers advantages over
The Multisort Baggage Handling System
consists of a continuous loop transport
system, induction lines to load baggage
automatically onto the transport system and
unloading points.
LEONARDO
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, he said.
Altogether, the Leonardo solution will
include one MBHS cross-belt sorter with
three induction lines for a total length of
about 500 m/1640 ft to serve 94 destinations.
There will also be two conveyor-based
bag buffers. Additional technological
innovations include advanced
IT systems for management, flow management
software for intelligent routing
and a diagnostic system.
A press release from Leonardo, outlines
many benefits: " The MBHS enables
airlines to streamline the entire sorting
process, optimize resource utilization,
and minimize operation expenses, ultimately
leading to cost savings for the
airline by reducing the cost per bag in
the system. Furthermore, this implementation
will contribute to a substantial
improvement in aircraft turnaround
time, translating into shorter layovers,
resulting in improved flight schedules
and increased customer satisfaction.
The overall passenger travel experience
will undergo a notable improvement
thanks to the elimination of delays and
mis-sortation, ensuring that baggage
arrives promptly at their destinations.
Additionally, Southwest's commitment
to improving operator working conditions
and ergonomics will be met by
alleviating the burden on operators, thus
enhancing the staff comfort and safety. "
Baggage handling efficiency is especially
important for Southwest, which
allows passengers to check two bags for
free. " Southwest handles far more bags
than anyone else in the industry and
it's not even close. This new system at
Denver airport helps to modernize our
largest operation and provides key efficiencies
to our people and customers, "
Andrew Watterson, Chief Operations
Officer at Southwest Airlines, said in
a Dec. 18 news release distributed by
Leonardo.
" The decision by Southwest to trust
their largest and most complex baggage
operation in the USA to Leonardo
really demonstrates the transformative
nature of our baggage technology, "
Massimiliano Veltroni, Managing
Director of Automation Business Unit,
said in the news release. " The application
of the MBHS for Southwest at Denver
will be game-changing for their operation
and I look forward to seeing the
system live with real Southwest bags in
the near future. " 
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024 \ AVIATIONPROS.COM / 33
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January/February 2024

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