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OCR for page 54
Chapter 5
Findings
Eliminating or reducing baggage recheck is a highly complex set of issues with trade-offs
related to volume, process, time, cost, and preserving the integrity of the U.S. border. Any solu-
tion also has to weather the ever-changing threat dynamic for contraband, terrorism, and less
malicious scenarios related to import of goods into the commerce of the United States.
However, simplifying connections would offer significant benefits to traveler satisfaction, the
sizing of facilities, and hub development opportunities that could improve the competitiveness
of airports to capture international traffic.
This chapter outlines the findings associated with eliminating or reducing baggage recheck.
Stakeholder Analysis
The introduction, or change, of a process or technology must be evaluated with an understand-
ing of the impact to those involved. Table 3 outlines the intended benefits that the elimination or
reduction of baggage recheck could have on the stakeholders/process owners involved. If successful,
the benefits to each group are generally universal across the alternative procedures. It is important to
note that the specific costs and benefits would vary greatly across the respective airports and airlines.
Generic Impact Analysis
To document the potential impact on the air transportation industry, an order of magnitude
of benefits for eliminating baggage recheck is provided that was based on perceived savings to air-
ports, airlines, and passengers. For each group, the impact was estimated for day-to-day operations,
deferred or reduced capital costs, passenger convenience/value of travel time, and other benefits.
Passenger and Bag Traffic
As noted in Chapter 3, there are approximately 23 million connecting passengers processed
annually by CBP at the 30 busiest airports. The impact analysis has been calculated based on
the potential savings from facilitating all international arrival transfer bags (i.e., eliminating
baggage recheck for international-to-international and international-to-domestic connections).
Based on a ratio of 1.35 bags per passenger (as specified in the 2011 SITA Baggage Report), the
approximate annual number of checked bags is 31 million.
The peak-hour passenger traffic was estimated using the Federal Aviation Administration's
recommended relationship for Typical Peak-Hour Passengers (TPHP) computations from
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Findings 55
Table 3. Stakeholder analysis of benefits of eliminating or reducing
baggage recheck.
Stakeholder Benefits
Outbound baggage is available for sortation sooner
Enhanced passenger experience for transfer process
Air Carriers Reduction in mishandled bags leading to cost savings and improved schedule integrity
Reduced staffing resources at baggage recheck facility
Reduced/eliminated bottlenecks at FIS baggage carousels and/or baggage recheck facility
Increased transfer passenger convenience
Enhanced gateway/hub capabilities
Airports
Ability to use the baggage recheck area for other purposes
Increased passenger time available for retail/food services
Improved transfer experience--particularly for families, the elderly, and the infirm
Passengers Reduced time in the FIS area
Increased time for retail/food services
TSA Potential spreading of passenger arrival at passenger screening checkpoint
Improved passenger perception with elimination of baggage claim in FIS
Spreading of passenger arrival at Egress officer position
CBP Decreased congestion surrounding FIS baggage carousels
Improved customer service
Enhanced capacity to focus on those passengers/bags potentially presenting a risk
annual figures. The ratio of 0.0350 percent peak-hour passengers to total annual passengers was
used. Although the ratios vary based on total annual passengers, the category "30 million and
over" was used because the average annual passengers at the top 30 U.S. airports is 35 million.
Applying the ratio to the total connecting passenger and bag traffic, the peak-hour traffic that
is currently impacted by baggage recheck is estimated to be 8,050 passengers and 10,868 bags.
Savings in Day-to-Day Operations
For each passenger who does not have to claim and recheck bags, the expected benefits are
as follows:
· Time eliminated from claiming bags, waiting to exit the FIS area, and rechecking bags.
· Increased passenger convenience (less contact time with processes).
· Reduced baggage handling costs.
Airport Staffing
In terms of airport staffing, there is the possibility of improved savings for operations through
baggage handling and customer service staff. However, there are highly variable orders of mag-
nitude of airport operation costs savings depending on the type of baggage systems used. As a
result, and to be conservative, annual airport operational staff savings have not been included as
a net benefit. A potential cost, however, could be the requirement for dedicated baggage retrieval
staff if an automated bag return system cannot be installed at a particular airport.
Airline Baggage Recheck Staffing
There are potential savings in the reduction of staff needed for baggage recheck. A signifi-
cantly reduced number of bags required to be rechecked should allow airlines to reduce staffing
requirements at recheck.
Based on a very conservative estimate that eliminating two recheck staff positions for each of the
top 30 airports could yield net savings of 60 full-time equivalents (FTE) and using a total FTE cost
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56Elimination or Reduction of Baggage Recheck for Arriving International Passengers
of $80,000 per year, approximately $4.8 million in labor costs could be saved each year. Cost sav-
ings could be much higher when the reduction of ramp staff who deliver baggage to claim carousels
and handle baggage after recheck is also considered. Relative costs vary from facility to facility.
Deferred Capital Costs and Equivalent Savings
The elimination of baggage recheck has a profound impact on the planning parameters for
international arrivals facilities. Hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent on new/expanded
international arrivals halls in the past decade and billions more in construction or design stages.
There is a potential to extend the useful life of existing facilities through improved baggage flows.
The actual benefit will vary from airport to airport but could include the following:
· Improved utilization of existing space for today's passenger volumes,
· Deferred future facility expansion required for growth of passenger volumes, and/or
· Designs for less-expensive new facilities.
Airport Baggage Carousel and Baggage Recheck Space
A critical part of the FIS is the provision of baggage reclaim carousels. Airports plan their inter-
national arrivals hall based on peak-hour aircraft and passenger arrivals. Depending on the bag-
gage carousel system, these units typically handle 500 to 1,000 bags. The average cost of a carousel,
in-feed conveyors, and the space that it occupies is at least $2 million. Based on peak-hour bag
delivery to the claim carousels with an average capacity of 600 bags, the reduction in rechecked bags
would remove the need for an estimated 18 claim carousels, offering a savings of over $36 million.
Capacity would still be available to serve destination passengers in this scenario.
Existing baggage recheck facilities and space could similarly be repurposed or future construction
could be avoided. For each baggage claim carousel saved, it is estimated an equivalent 1,000 square
feet of recheck space could be saved. With an average construction cost of $1,000 per square foot,
this translates to approximately $18 million in recheck space savings.
However, this number should be treated with extreme caution. For most international airports,
there is no room to simply "add" a baggage carousel or recheck facility to achieve greater capac-
ity. The addition of new carousels could trigger the need for an expanded/new FIS that could add
hundreds of millions in costs, depending on the airport configuration.
Passenger Convenience/Value of Travel Time
Typically, a passenger will select an international connecting airport based on a select few
conditions that include total travel time and passenger convenience. As concluded in Test 1, the
elimination of baggage recheck should save passengers considerable amounts of time while in
transit (about 25 minutes).
The value to passengers of these time savings has been estimated using standard value of time
calculations commonly used in the economic assessment of projects. The U.S. DOT Revised
Departmental Guidance for the Valuation of Travel Time in Economic Analysis (6) provides a
recommended average value of time for air travelers, in 2000 dollars. This valuation was adjusted
to 2009 dollars using income data from the U.S. Census Bureau Current Population Survey
tables of historical mean income per capita, an approach consistent with the original calculation
of the value of time (the original U.S. DOT values were based on a percentage of hourly income).
The resulting value of time was calculated to be $33.95 per hour, in 2009 dollars.
The average time savings from not having to reclaim or recheck bags was conservatively estimated
at 15 minutes per passenger for all airports. Based on 23 million enplaned passengers annually, the
number of hours saved is 5.75 million with an estimated value of $192 million each year.
