Baggage Claim Area Congestion at Airports: An Empirical Model of Mechanized Claim Device Performance

Although baggage handling is a major airport expense and congestion of luggage claim areas is quite common, knowledge of how baggage claim devices perform their task under congested conditions is virtually nonexistent. In order to bridge this gap this paper describes a model that, for different demand conditions, can predict the performance of a claim device depending on its characteristics. The demand conditions considered include aircraft size, lag between arrival of passengers and bags, and the fraction of passengers that transfer. The characteristics of the claim device that affect performance are frontage length, cycle time, and maximum throughput. The proposed model can predict the accumulation of passengers around the claim device, the time it takes to handle a planeload, and the average passenger service time as the demand conditions and claim device characteristics change. Although the model is deterministic and makes a number of simplifying assumptions, it is also easy to apply if the arrival pattern of bags and people to the claim area is known. Thus, if predictive and/or normative models for these arrivals become available, fairly simple and realistic procedures to study a number of baggage claim area design and operation issues could be developed around the model. The model, which is based on data gathered at the American Airline, National Airline, and Western Airline terminals at San Francisco International Airport, was able to reproduce the observed light congestion phenomena quite well; especially in the case that consisted of a rather large planeload. Unfortunately, lack of resources prevented us to observe a variety of terminals, including situations with much congestion and many bags per passenger. Because of this, further refinements and/or fine tuning of the formulas is definitely recommended.