Palm Beach International Airport Plan to Upgrade Baggage Handling System

Palm Beach Airport baggage handling system is 25 years old and needs to be upgraded. According to airport officials, it is growing increasingly difficult to keep up with maintenance issues with the 10-year old explosive detection system.

To ensure enhanced safety is in place for the monitoring and handling of airport baggage, the system must undergo a complete modernisation program and Jerry Allen, deputy director of Palm Beach Country’s airports department, know what he wants, following research that has been ongoing for almost 10 years. “We have had this baggage system for 25 years, and things change in our industry,” said Allen, “What this is going to do is allow us to drop a bag off at any gate and still get it to the appropriate airline.”

Airports across the world are embracing the latest technological advancements in baggage handling systems. With biometric scanning and electronic tagging and tracking, sophisticated, modern systems involve almost no human intervention to operate to maximum efficiency, which gives airport personnel a greater flexibility. Mr Allen said “It operates more efficiently, so those employees can be doing other things.”

To pay for the new automated system, the airport plans to use $32.4 million in federal and state grants, leaving $9.6 million to be realised from passenger facility charges at $4.50 per passenger.

Officials from the airport sought permission from the county to spend the $42 million earlier this week and are awaiting an outcome.