Back to Air Transport IT Review - Issue 2, September 2010
A decade of baggage improvement: Schiphol
By Jaime Van Gorp
Project Manager
Schiphol Airport
Our geographical position near the coast of Holland has meant Schiphol Airport has always been dependent on attracting transfer passengers for its growth. In fact 42% of our passengers are transfer. As the SITA Baggage Report indicates, it is the transfer of baggage that leads to the most mishandling. And this is what we found at Schiphol.
In 2000, our mishandling rate was 70 bags per 1000 passengers - 2,000 mishandled bags a day. If we contrast this to the industry average of 18.86 in 2007 that IATA uses as its benchmark for its Baggage Improvement Programme, then it is obvious we had a serious issue.
Road to improvement
So chronic was our baggage management systems that it was a constraint on our growth. We physically could not process any more baggage even though we could handle many more flights and passengers.
While we have been able to determine the root causes - lack of peak time capacity, no fall back, change from semi-manual to automatic sorting system, unstable control system - the solutions are not always easily implemented.
For instance, at Schiphol we have four baggage handling companies with a total of 2,000 employees dealing with 150,000 bags a day. Each one uses different processes and technologies. These companies also have to hand over baggage to each other, which gives added complexity.
Our road to improvement will last 13 years and cost €800 million. It is a two-pronged approach focused on quick short-term measures and a longer term goal, which is to process 70 million bags per year - up from the present 45 million, while keeping mishandling rates below 15/1000 passengers.
To achieve this we must overcome six challenges - expand capacity, improve quality, cut costs, improve working conditions, boost staff productivity, and create a more robust system.
What changes were made?
First of all, since 2006, we have been developing robots to load the baggage containers. The complete lack of standardization of baggage means the robots have to be able to deal with all shapes, sizes and types of material. It has been a huge development exercise to get it right.
A second important solution was to move the aircraft unloading processes as close to the aircraft as possible rather than do it centrally, which resulted in unnecessary driving of the bags around the airport. To achieve that, we are building a high speed backbone conveyor system linking the four baggage units across the airport. This enables all the units to work as a single system.
There were other changes. We co-located the two control centres of Schiphol and KLM. This ensured faster response to problems and a dramatic improvement in communication.
The key lessons learnt from our experience of this project is to not underestimate the lead times for new innovations and the integration with existing systems leads to more complexity, which must be prepared for.
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