Philadelphia Airport to expand bag handling capacity
Tuesday, June 16th, 2009
By: Elizabeth Fiedler
efiedler@whyy.org
Some travelers flying out of Philadelphia International Airport may have less lost luggage in their future, thanks to federal stimulus money. Federal and state officials arrived at the airport on Monday to announce $26 million in federal funds to build two new baggage handling systems.
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Officials say the system will smooth the check-in process for passengers, and increase airport security and safety.
The new system will help, agrees business travel expert Joe Brancatelli.
Senator Arlen Specter surrounded by other federal and state officials
Brancatelli: Philadelphia Airport has a terrible reputation for baggage handling. But these systems are mostly about security rather than about improving baggage handling per se. They will help because after 9/11 we just layered a whole new regiment of security on top of baggage handling and of course that made difficult baggage handling even harder.
Airport officials say they hope to have similar baggage handling systems operating throughout the entire airport by 2012.