Moderators: jsumali2, richierich, ua900, PanAm_DC10, hOMSaR
Quoting aklrno (Reply 2): Other airports have a belt that disappears behind a wall to the area where the baggage carts are towed from the aircraft. Baggage handlers lift the bags from the cart to the belt by hand. If you can't get the baggage carts close to the belts then the first way is required. If the carts do pull up to the back side of the belt then I guess either would work but the flat belt would be easier. There must be a lot of ramp rats here that could verify this. |
Quoting N1120A (Reply 7): I've seen plenty of airports outside the US that use the sloped ones, and I've seen US airports with the flat ones. MSY has the flats. |
Quoting 1337Delta764 (Thread starter): This is in stark contrast to Europe, where flat plate baggage carousels dominate. |
Quoting 1337Delta764 (Thread starter): with America's aging population, does anyone think we could eventually see a return to flat plate carousels in the future? |
Quoting ikramerica (Reply 1): Flats are peninsulas while sloped are islands you can walk around completely. Most of our airports can't work as peninsulas without rebuilding the terminals. So maybe new terminals can incorporate this ability. |
Quoting AMALH747430 (Reply 12): Both Terminal A (opened in 1984) and Terminal B at SAT (opened November 2010) have the flat plate carousels. AMA, MAF and HOU also have flat plate carousels. IAH, DFW, AUS, DAL and LBB have sloped plate carousels. It would seem that the bigger airports seem to have the sloped design and the smaller airports the flat plate. SAT and LBB being the exceptions. It iz worth noting that the design of the LBB terminal is basically a carbon copy of othe design of the original DFW terminals. |
Quoting ginger727 (Reply 8): One problem with flat plate carousels is that the TSA does not like them because of the inherent security issues they cause. Because the conveyor must continuously go between the bag claim area and the ramp side secure area, a person with evil intent can easily ride the conveyor out to the ramp, or can pass weapons out to the ramp. |
Quoting JHwk (Reply 18): With better bag tracking, the likelihood of being able to get bags to a passenger at a specific point and time should be the target. It should be possible to actually put all of a passengers bags on a cart for them automatically, and charge them for it. |
Quoting BigB (Reply 16): Terminal A and B at IAH have flats |
Quoting Bogota (Reply 17): Not in the modern ones. The new BOG terminal has sloped on the international concourse and flat in the domestic. The flat ones are circular inside the pax terminal area and are fed by a second conveyor which comes from the back. Similar to what happens with the mini conveyors at check-in desks, which feed the back conveyor that takes the bags to the plane. |
Quoting UALFAson (Reply 22): Thanks for posting this, Bogota. I was about to say we have the same thing here in BNA--flat, T-shaped (usually) carousels where the bags run along the back of the inside wall if they're not claimed after the first lap. They're fed by a one-way conveyor from outside with a sensor that will stop that belt from shooting another bag out if one is about to come 'round again. It's kindof fun to watch! |
Quoting HPRamper (Reply 19): |
Quoting ikramerica (Reply 27): I like the old eyw system where there was a sloped tray along the wall with garage doors against the apron. Then the carts would drive up along the side of the building, they would open the garage doors and throw the bags in the terminal and then close the doors and leave. No belts at all. |