Marisa Garcia Copenhagen Airport has announced that it will expand baggage claim facilities with a new construction project to be completed by 2018.
The airport, which is experiencing record traffic growth, reports a daily flow of 30-35,000 inbound bags, and says that volume warrants a revamp of its existing baggage claim facilities.
The baggage claim expansion plan is part of an ongoing process at CPH to keep up with growth in the number of flights and passengers. The airport expects to grow capacity to 40 million passengers per year.
“In recent years, we have seen quite significant growth in passenger numbers; in the first seven months of this year alone, the growth rate was in fact 10.7%. Although far more passengers today travel only with carry-on baggage, the overall volume of checked baggage has also grown somewhat. We have therefore started planning for an expansion of the baggage reclaim area,” said Copenhagen Airport COO Kristian Durhuus.
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FACTS ABOUT BAGGAGE AT COPENHAGEN AIRPORT
- 26.6 million Passengers travelled through Copenhagen Airport in 2015 to one of the 156 non-stop routes.
- On peak days, there are more than 60,000 pieces of inbound and outbound baggage at Copenhagen Airport.
- Passengers’ perception of wait for the bags is an average of 8.6 minutes
- In 2013, the facilities for outbound baggage were expanded substantially, including more conveyor belts, updated software and new X-ray machines, bringing the capacity to more than 30 million passengers per year.
- A large part of the facilities are redundant, with those backup systems reducing the impact of any operational disruptions.
“The project is being developed in a close collaboration with the airlines and the handling companies which handle both inbound and outbound baggage,” said Kristian Durhuus.
Inbound baggage is picked up at the aircraft by the ground handling companies working for the airline, who transport it to the baggage area for delivery. The bags are then loaded onto short conveyor belts which transport them to the baggage reclaim area.
Copenhagen Airport has made process changes to improve the existing baggage claim experience, reducing the space taken up by short shipped or delayed bags through a collaboration with the baggage handling companies.
These process improvements have proven successful keeping passenger satisfaction with baggage retreival at 86%, despite increasing passenger numbers. The airport said during its recent financial report that it plans to invest in proactive improvements to ensure a consistently satisfactory passenger experience.
Make Room, Make Room
The baggage retrieval construction plan will extend two of the airport’s eight baggage conveyors and create more space for passengers. The airport aims to create 500 sqm of additional space for passengers – a total of 3,150 sqm around the new baggage conveyors 1 and 2. The project will also include adding extra space for the two larger baggage conveyors, technical facilities and new access roads for the baggage staff.
Further expansion of the baggage delivery facilities is expected in the future, but these will require extensive expansion and modification of the terminals and technical facilities.
“It is a very complex job to build at the very heart of a busy airport without affecting passengers and operations. It requires tight planning and plenty of time. We therefore expect that the planned expansion will be ready for use in a couple of years. Right now, the target is the summer of 2018, but we will know more about that when the project is ready for start-up,” said Kristian Durhuus.
While a final figure for the project is still to be determined, Copenhagen Airport estimates the investment will be more than DKK 100 million (approx. Euro 13.4 million/British Pounds 11.5 million/USD 15 million).
[…] year, the airport also detailed plans to expand its baggage claim area as part of ongoing construction. The baggage area expansion is due for completion in […]