Carrying On Your Luggage Is Not The
Only Way To Assure Its Safety
By K. Kemper
Flying solutions for passengers, specifically; lost luggage and being
stuck on the tarmac
In the 1920's, commercial airlines began carrying passengers in
addition to packages and mail.
Our little planes began carrying a dozen passengers and “ramped up”
quickly to planes carrying over 100.
When planes carried only 100 passengers and had propellers, our
airports were rather simple and people carried their luggage right to
the “gate” where it was put on the plane that the passenger was
boarding.
When the gate luggage handlers places one’s luggage on board, there
is no way to lose it. If a passenger had to switch 2 to 5 planes in the
course of a day, the passenger carried the luggage from one gate to
another gate and waited as that luggage handler placed that passenger’s
luggage on board that plane. When that passenger needed, after landing,
another airliner’s plane, he waited to get his luggage from his plane’s
luggage handler and then, carrying his own luggage, he walked to the
next airliner’s gate and repeated the process all over again. He may
have needed to wait in 5 lounges every major trip, giving and taking his
luggage but ALWAYS being in control of it once on the ground.
I have no problem whatever, with the man or woman who feels it is
cumbersome to have to haul luggage around many airports throughout one’s
travel day. It is cumbersome, time consuming and boring to have to wait
at each gate to repeat such a process.
A reminder of the above–we have prop planes, a few million annual
passengers, and a passenger that carries his luggage from gate to gate,
staying in control of his luggage all the time the plane is on the
ground. Thus, the amount of lost luggage per year; zero! Why zero? Cause
the plane and passenger are always tied together until the passenger
walks away from the plane with his luggage. He spends 5 to 55 minutes
extra a day losing nothing in personal possessions.
NOW we skip ahead 80 years. We have monster airplanes, 200x times the
number of passengers and we also have –for the first time–lost luggage.
And we don’t only have one or two pieces a day of lost luggage but
instead, 2 million pieces of lost luggage a D A Y!
When the airports took on the responsibility of the passenger and
created an “efficient” luggage system that “automatically” followed the
passenger, we created a bottle neck that is unprecedented. We even have
a store in the east that sells ONLY those items that the airports lost
and then found and could not trace the passenger and gave or sold the
lost items to merchants. ABSURD.
Since no government body has ever created a system to make things
more efficient or consumer oriented–luggage handling has become a
nightmare.
It is easily solvable–and we don’t even need those marvelous RFIP
[radar] tags].
Though we did not have luggage screening [and we rarely have it now],
we can revert back to the good old days and things will be easier for
everyone!
The muni workers and some flyers will say “but the airport handles
the luggage so I won’t have to. That is the problem! Giving someone else
YOUR responsibility!
[We still permit people to bring on board, ‘x’ amount of luggage
which I think should be banned]
If we returned to the better luggage days, the scene would look like
and be this way:
If we are booked on a flight and are bringing luggage, we go directly
to security and our gate. We do not go to central ticket confirmation or
luggage drop-off where we used to give our luggage to the ticket people.
After security, we carry our luggage to our gate and hold onto the
luggage. [That will take up some more space but who cares?] We can also
ship extra luggage on ahead but why take that much?
We hold onto our luggage till our plane is ready for boarding. My
system exchanges poor security for perfect security and thus, slower
boarding. As the plane we want comes in, we stay seated [or standing if
no room.] When the de-boarding passengers come in, they wait in the gate
area instead of walking to luggage pick-up. Luggage is removed from the
plane however the luggage handlers do their job. As said luggage is
removed, it is handed to a walker who carries it to the waiting
passengers. IF the plane is parked away from the gate, all the luggage
is unloaded one truckload at a time to a mini carrier, and that is
carried to the gate and carried up to the passenger area. That does
require more luggage handlers. As each mini truck is unloaded, the
passenger shows his ticket and the luggage is handed to him. Like
laundry, no ticket, no luggage.
When the de-boarded passengers are all taken care of and have left
the passenger area of that specific gate, the boarding passengers hand
their luggage to the luggage man and enter the mini corridor to get on
the plane. As each passenger sits down, his luggage is placed on the
belt and when the luggage reaches the luggage handler on the plane, it
is placed as it is normally placed.
Using this system, more luggage trucks are needed, portable moving
belts are used, each gate temporarily gets very very congested and
passengers are responsible for their own luggage. If a passenger needs
to move luggage several hundred yards to another gate or terminal,
luggage carts are available that are either self-operated or run by
employees. The key element is that the passenger again keeps control of
the luggage and not the airliner or airport. That 22 million a year lost
luggage problem disappears and boarding time is increased from 10
minutes to 25 minutes or so.
The passenger still has to hand her/his boarding pass to the employee
who accepts those. It can’t be that much more complicated to also hand
luggage and receive a luggage tag.
To make it faster, each gate can have mini luggage carriers so, when
the passenger arrives at the gate, after “signing in”, the luggage can
be put into a mini luggage truck and that truck would be held till the
plane is ready for it. Thus, there is more than one way to easily skin
the luggage cat.
So, we can examine this easily–in exchange for perfect luggage
examination ]and security] and zero lost luggage, and in exchange, 10
minutes or less, slower boarding time, would you accept this system?
[ps; Denver ordered a newer centralized system that cost over $10
million dollars and it was scrapped!]
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