At Hong Kong’s Chek Lap Kok Airport, Vanderlande Industries was involved in creating one of the world’s largest baggage handling systems. Capacity is approximately 35 million passengers a year, with a maximum throughput of 19,200 bags per hour, although plans for a system to handle more than 80 million passengers a year are already in place.
A total of 24 kilometres of conveyors ensures trouble-free baggage transport. With 288 common check-in desks, connections are established with any of the 152 flight make-up laterals to dispatch bags to any departing aircraft. Some interesting key-facts:
- From check-in to make-up takes less than 12 minutes passing a primary and a secondary sortation
- 100% Hold Baggage Screening (HBS) is applied, with a 5-level high security screening procedure
- Passengers can check in early (up to 48 hours) before departure. The Early Baggage Storage has 100 storage conveyor lanes with a capacity of 4,000 bags
Noticeable is the ability to accept bags from In-Town Check-in desks located at two major railway stations. This highly automated baggage handling system was realised on time in 1998 and is running without operational problems for a fully satisfied customer HKIA.
