Technology aids baggage management systems at airports, reduces wait times

Regardless of the time of the year, Dubai International Airport (DXB) is forever bustling with travellers pouring in from across the globe. 

If current projections hold, DXB anticipates welcoming a record 91 million passengers in 2024, surpassing the previous high of 89.1 million set in 2018. About 3.3 million travellers are expected to fly in and out of DXB until August 28, according to the latest statistics from Dubai Airports.

There is a natural demand for air travel during the summer holidays and to meet these rising needs, local airlines Emirates and flydubai have expanded their networks. But with such a staggering number of passengers, ensuring  smooth handling of baggage within the airport is nothing short of an Herculean task.

A significant reason why passengers experience minimal wait times at DXB is the efficient baggage handling services offered here. The airport processes thousands of bags on a daily basis, ensuring each one reaches its final destination intact, thereby maintaining passenger satisfaction. Thanks to the baggage flow model (BFM), an innovative technology and process implemented at DXB to achieve this efficiency.

One of the core activities of the airport operations control centre is luggage handling. It is  dedicated to the dnata team, which coordinates services, towing, cleaning, and all luggage processing.

DXB’s automated baggage handling system employs conveyor belts, sorting devices, and other advanced technologies to ensure bags reach their destinations promptly. All luggage undergoes screening by inspection devices before being loaded onto planes, guaranteeing the safety of all belongings.

In an exclusive interview with Aviation 360, Ciaran O’Sullivan, dnata’s Divisional Vice President of Airline Services, highlighted the issues when it comes to baggage handling during peak travel periods and how it is effectively handled by dnata. The Emirati airport services provider has developed “an in-house baggage management system (BMS) and associated logistics planning tools.” 

Ciaran is responsible for dnata’s airline services portfolio in the U.A.E. This includes all turnaround activities for our customer airlines at Dubai International Airport (DXB) and Al Maktoum International Airport (DWC), in addition to all below wing activities for Emirates Airline in their hub.

Prior to joining the Emirates Group, O’Sullivan has worked with flydubai for 10 years in various leadership positions, including Senior Vice-President of Airport Services and GCAA postholder for Ground Operations.

During peak travel periods, baggage handling systems at airports are impacted, which means “more demand is placed on the baggage production line. When there is more baggage, it raises the probability of more variables and exceptions. The nearer to capacity a machine or process reaches, the less resilient it becomes,” O’Sullivan explained. 

There are other challenges too, according to O’Sullivan, other than the volume, he wouldn’t say a busy day can be more challenging than a normal or quiet day. It has the potential to be, but there have been many standard days when operations have become more challenging than a busy day.

Baggage production line

The baggage production line is still very manual, heavily reliant on human interaction. Humans fail more than machines. The processes and elements applied, and systems which deliver the baggage production line, must be constantly checked and tested, O’Sullivan mentioned. 

But, technological advancements have been implemented to improve the efficiency of baggage production line at airports.

“Understanding the evolving technology and applying it, is essential to help eliminate waste and variability in the baggage production line, and hence drive consistency and improvement,” O’Sullivan said.

An efficient baggage production line will help drive on-time performance and customer satisfaction, thereby avoiding cost and driving revenue.

“We train our focus on BMS to help plan and provide situational awareness. This includes the elements of the baggage production line to limit waste, inefficiency and variability. BMS allows us to create tools to dynamically profile transfer baggage and build optimal connection units at outstations.”

Additionally, it also gives the optimal download order of baggage ULDs, taking criticality into consideration. For example, flight delays or short aircraft turnaround times. It’s an optimal resource in limiting any wasted time in the logistics process, O’Sullivan added.

As Dubai is a key global transit hub for passengers, BMS has allowed dnata to allocate specific transfer infrastructure to expedite the induction of critical, time-limited connection baggage.

“As a baggage community at DXB, we are working to further develop a tool to predict where a bag will be and when. We can then use this to identify opportunities where an intervention can be executed, to connect a bag that was predicted to misconnect,” O’Sullivan said.

Lastly, he added that the key takeaway for improving baggage handling is by evolving, planning, preparing, and allocating resources appropriately.