How Airports Work Baggage Handling

The baggage handling system at an airport plays a crucial role in keeping travelers happy. It also can make the difference in an airport's ability to attract or keep a major airline hub.

Each airport has its own requirements. For instance, the time allotted for a bag to make it from the check-in area to the gate is determined by how fast a passenger can make the same trip. In some airports, it might only be a short walk to the passenger terminal, while in others, passengers might have to take a train.

The Denver International Airport has a modern, automated baggage-handling system designed by BAE Automated Systems, Inc. United Airlines uses Terminal B at the Denver Airport as a hub, so this terminal has the most automation. This system incorporates some amazing technology to move bags from the check-in counter to the departure gate in an almost completely automated way:

Destination-coded vehicles (DCVs), unmanned carts propelled by linear induction motors mounted to the tracks, can load and unload bags without stopping.

Automatic scanners scan the labels on the luggage.

Conveyors equipped with junctions and sorting machines automatically route the bags to the gate.

Runways

Runways are amazing – a typical one is about 2 miles long, as wide as a 16-lane highway and about 3 feet thick!

Think about this: A fully-loaded 777 or 747-400 weighs about 850,000 pounds (385,554 kg). Imagine a rough landing where 850,000 pounds slams down hard onto the runway. Runways have to be specially constructed to take that strain without cracking or, worse, buckling. As they're designing runways, engineers have to consider the number of wheels an airplane has, how far apart those wheels are and the size of the tires. As planes get bigger and bigger, runways have to be re-built to accommodate the increased stresses.

When the Denver International Airport was built, it took 2.5-million cubic yards of concrete to create five 12,000-foot runways, plus taxiways and aprons. First, 6 feet of compacted soil was put down; then, a foot-deep layer of soil was spread, topped by an 8-inch-thick cement-treated base; that was followed by 17 inches of concrete paving.

Main runways are usually oriented to line up with the prevailing wind patterns so that airplanes can take-off into the wind and land with it. Local and ground air traffic controllers determine which runways are used for take-off and which for landing, taking into account weather, wind and air-traffic conditions. In some airports, main runways cross each other, so the controllers have to pay even closer attention.

Planes use taxi runways to get from the gate to a main runway for take-off and from a main runway to the gate after landing. Ground controllers direct ground traffic from the airport's tower.

Airports also use standardized lighting and ground markings to provide direction and identification to all air and ground crews. To assist pilots in differentiating at night between airport runways and freeways, airports have rotating beacon lights. These beacons usually flash green and white lights to indicate a civilian airport. They are visible from the air long before the entire airport is recognizable. To help pilots at night quickly identify the beginning of a runway, green threshold lights line the runway's edge. Red lights mark the ends of runways and indicate obstructions. Blue lights run alongside taxiways while runways have white or yellow lights marking their edges.

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The baggage handling system, an airline hub, the system incorporates some amazing technology, a check-in counter, destination-coded vehicles, unmanned carts, junctions, runways, buckling, to accommodate the increased stresses, taxiways, aprons, concrete paving, to take-off into the wind and land with it, air traffic controllers, the airport's tower, air and ground crews, beacon lights.

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