Don’t mention Heathrow!
Ever wondered where your bags go after you drop them off at flight check in? Probably not, however below the glamour of the airport departure lounges, there exist dungeons otherwise known as ‘baggage halls’ where kilometres of conveyors and machines screen and sort your bags to their appropriate flights.
Having spent the past two weeks immersed in the baggage halls of Gatwick Airport, I can say with some confidence that I must be the RSME’s new expert on airport hold baggage systems (unless Jim can still remember from his time here?). This blog very briefly introduces the Programme and my role.
The Programme
Every bag that is loaded into an aeroplane’s hold must be scanned for suspicious substances prior to loading. To meet the latest EU regulations, Gatwick must (barring any Brexit effects) upgrade all 30 of their screening machines prior to 2018 at about £1m a piece. Unfortunately it is not a simple case of swapping the newer ones in for the older ones. Due to increased power and cooling demands, as well as severely restricted access to the machines, a programme of enabling and upgrade works to all the current baggage handling systems is required. The budget of the Programme is £139m and it is split into 9 different projects, all to be delivered with no interruption to daily baggage operations.
Pilot project – 6 tonne Explosive Detection System being lifted into position for trialing.
My role:
As the Mechanical, Electrical and Plumbing Building Services ‘specialist’ within the Programme team, I will support all of the nine Projects by managing a) the MEP designers during design stages and b) managing the MEP sub-contractors during construction stages. Work on the first of the nine projects is due to start in July so I’ll be concentrating on design reviews and contractual work up to then.
Typical baggage hall conveyor – these bags are in ‘quarantine’ – they have gone through the explosives scanner but await decision if they are safe or not.
Typical sorter – once scanned, bags are individually loaded onto trays that then flip your bag into the bin designated for your flight. All governed by barcode readers and PLCs.
In terms of experience so far, I found that the principle designer has fudged their concept lux lighting level calc’s worse than a Phase 1 PET student, and that Heathrow is referred to only as ‘the other place’.
A genuine offer; if anyone is flying from Gatwick over the next year, please do give me a shout and I can go into more detail over a departure lounge coffee!
Holdfast Training Services Trial Blog 
Thanks for the offer of a coffee Stu but I think I now know almost all I need to about Gatwick baggage handling for the time being… Should be interesting working on the live install.
After two years in the bowls of terminals north and south, I had just about been able to erase the memory of the baggage halls from my troubled dreams. Until now………. Let me know how often you get lost in the steel maze over the next coupl of months 😱
Stu
I was going to fly from Gatwick on Friday but am now flying from Stanstead
All the very best
Neil
Stu,
Have you got anything to do with the new Pier 1? BWL are the design consultants and the guy who runs with the mechanical package sit opposite me.
Rich,
Not much to be honest, that’s another project team – as it’s nearing completion and going into testing there wasn’t much value in me getting into that project. I will be trying to pick up the lessons learnt for baggage project though.
Stu,
Does this mean we’re going to see you on ‘Worlds Busiest Airports’?
Stu
See you in August, will you pay for my wife, children and grand kids?
As I know you like to watch the pennies John, I’ll let you in on my staff discount!