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!]
