New baggage sorting system at BRU

[Stij]

According to Belgian newspaper De Standaard http://www.standaard.be/artikel/detail. ... 120810_078 BRU is testing a new bagage sorting system under pier A. It should reduce delays for departing pax, arriving pax but especcially for transfer pax.

Now let's hope those notorious 30min waits for luggage at BRU will finally be over... Insha'Allah!

Cheers,

Stij

EDIT typo's typo's typo's...

[CTBke]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyfeq46 ... r_embedded

[Tomskii]

The system should have been introduced with terminal A in 2001 already, but was never finished entirely until now because of Sabena bankruptcy.

[sn26567]

Now let's hope those notorious 30min waits for luggage at BRU will finally be over...

It's for departing baggage! And at 22 km/h in the tunnel, the baggage goes to Pier A faster than its owner (11 minutes from check-in to plane).

[Stij]

It's for departing baggage! And at 22 km/h in the tunnel, the baggage goes to Pier A faster than its owner (11 minutes from check-in to plane).

That's a pity, well, we'll keep on flying with the trolley then.

So, in fact, all those trays come back empty!

Cheers,

Stij

[Tomskii]

It's for departing baggage! And at 22 km/h in the tunnel, the baggage goes to Pier A faster than its owner (11 minutes from check-in to plane).

That's a pity, well, we'll keep on flying with the trolley then.

So, in fact, all those trays come back empty!

Cheers,

Stij

Yeah but isn't is supposed to be 2-way traffic in the future?

[webstermc]

I think tis is 2-way as stated in the press release.

It should reduce delays for departing pax, arriving pax but especcially for transfer pax.

I think the comment about 1-way was a comment on the video, not on the system in general

[rix]

Interesting news video (in French) on the "new" baggage sorting system at BRU
€40 million investment for transit luggage of SN European and African flights, boosting the handling capacity by 5,000 extra pieces per hour.

http://www.rtbf.be/video/v_nouveau-syst ... egory=info

According to the explanation given Mr Dewanckel, the project manager, "Star Alliance wants to set up a hub operation here".

[RoMax]

According to the explanation given Mr Dewanckel, the project manager, "Star Alliance wants to set up a hub operation here".

Of course they want that. Just like at many airports in the Star network the A Pier at BRU will be ideal to locate all flights under the same roof once A Pier West is finished. The amount of transfers between Star and SN is increasing at high speed, locating all their flights under the same roof (with a fast baggage system of course) will be great for SN and the Star partners in BRU (increasing the service for the pax and the transfer possibilities).

[tolipanebas]

Once the under one roof project will be finished, it will indeed be possible to quickly transfer between STAR alliance flights and still have your luggage with you without need for any physical intervention like it is now often done, often even in the extreme form of somebody coming up to the door of the arriving plane, picking you out of the deboarding line and taking you into a minivan, during which somebody else has been very bussy sorting out your hold luggage on the ramp so it can be driven to your next flight right away and be manually reloaded there, all while you arrive back onboard in style at the very last minute when everybody else has long been seated already.

It's all very nice to experience this kind of VIP transfer service, but its also very expensive when you need to offer it to several tens of passengers daily and thus have a dedicated team occupied with it. Given the high labour costs involved, it is something you can only truely do for a real VIP or for much delayed connecting long haul customers, not for Joe Average who goes from HAM to BRS on a 200 euro return economy ticket and ends up with a regular 35 minutes of connection time at BRU for instance: that's the kind of passenger for whom the 'under on roof' concept is designed, so as to just go with the flow: this new baggage sorting system is but one step in it, the extention of the A pier westbound is another much needed phase to create sufficient gate space under the single roof for all of the STAR alliance flights, ideally also the long hauls like TG, UA, AC etc...

BTW, If 9W indeed joins STAR, it looks like BRU might have to expend its A pier right up to Machelen even, while the B pier will be pretty much deserted throughout the day then.

[sn26567]

Just one question: if Pier A becomes the Star Alliance hub and Pier B remains devoted to non-Schengen departures, where will the Schengen flights of non-Star airlines pick up their passengers?

[Tomskii]

Just one question: if Pier A becomes the Star Alliance hub and Pier B remains devoted to non-Schengen departures, where will the Schengen flights of non-Star airlines pick up their passengers?

Probably some sort of 2 security checks at the Star Alliance pier, so that non-schengen en schengen flights get screened seperately?

[shockcooling]

Just one question: if Pier A becomes the Star Alliance hub and Pier B remains devoted to non-Schengen departures, where will the Schengen flights of non-Star airlines pick up their passengers?

I'm quite sure all Schengen flights keep on using the A terminal... It's just the newly build A West pier which will become a dedicated *alliance non-schengen zone.

[RoMax]

I'm quite sure all Schengen flights keep on using the A terminal... It's just the newly build A West pier which will become a dedicated *alliance non-schengen zone.

Indeed A Pier West will be for SN/Star only, meaning the A Pier will hold all SN flights and probably most (all?) Star flights. That will make the A Pier a Star Hub, but just like at many other airports all over the world where Star Airlines have their hubs, that doesn't mean the rest of the airlines has to leave for another Terminal/Pier.

So A Pier West for SN and (Star) partners non-schengen, A Pier for all non-schengen and B Pier for remaining non-schengen.

[convair]

@MR_Boeing

This is a bit confusing: I assume you mean A-pier (East) for SHENGEN flights; otherwise where for the Shengen flights?

Still, A-pier West would then need a border control specially dedicated to SN and its Star partners (for both arriving and departing pax); good for them but not exactly the level-playing field SN has been calling for.

[Tomskii]

@Convair: you either have a stricter control for ALL pax to pier A which would make no sense, or you either do it like currently done for the T gates, an extra border control for A-pier west. Simple as that.

[RoMax]

@MR_Boeing

This is a bit confusing: I assume you mean A-pier (East) for SHENGEN flights; otherwise where for the Shengen flights?

Yes indeed, sorry for the confusion. I'll change it in my original post.

Still, A-pier West would then need a border control specially dedicated to SN and its Star partners (for both arriving and departing pax); good for them but not exactly the level-playing field SN has been calling for.

If they now have a dedicated control in the A Pier to have acces to the T-gates in the morning/noon, why would it be wrong to have it for all non-schengen flights operated by SN (so not only Africa and US, but also certain short haul flights like out of the UK) and the Star partners?

[convair]

OK. Didn't know about the T gates.

[Stij]

An idea to spread the flights more evenly between between A and B...

A exclusively for STAR with A East for Schengen and B West for Non-Schengen (maybe even with a system like the current T-gates (T for temporary???) so that part of West can be used for Schengen as well)
B exclusively for other carriers with the same system as in A West.

Acces to A and B would then be at the current B passport controll, the current access to the A gates would then be closed.

All the shops in the main terminal would be accessible for everybody.

What do you think?

Cheers,

Stij

[Flybe]

As far as I know (but I'm already a year out of the BRU environment & aviation in general), the T gates will not continue to exist after enough non-schengen capacity has been created.

As the A terminal (and as such the T zone too) has only 1 level, it is not suited for non-schengen where you need to separate the arriving and departing pax. This is why aircrafts arrive still at the B gates, after which the empty planes are towed to the T gates to make place for the other long hauls that arrive a bit later.

This makes for a hugely inefficient and expensive process.

As Tolipanebas says, they will have to expand the A-West zone almost to Machelen if they want to create enough capacity for whole STAR (including 9W).

I still don't get it why they aren't planning to put gates in the connector building. They could even keep the planned security check in the connector at the level of departure (level +3 counting from departure hall) while having the gates at the level above or below that. Only annoyance would be that the pax that use those gates would pass security, then take escalators up or down and turn back for a few meters.

=> estimate 6 to 8 Schengen gates (3 to 4 at each side, correct me if I'm wrong) in the connector, and keep A West completely for STAR non-schengen (90% long haul gates) + convert T zone back to schengen.

Just my 2 cents though

EDIT: small remark on topic - Yes the luggage system under the A terminal is also for arriving luggage. I don't know what they have changed since a year ago, but I think they will still have a bottleneck for transit Schengen (or rather A gate to A gate) luggage, as the system was designed that these luggages need to go from the A gate to the old system under the departure hall, then back to the A gate. Loads of transit luggages (which is exactly what is happening right now) -> the same bottleneck as before. Then again, maybe they have taken the last year to solve this bottleneck, as I know that they were aware of it at that moment.