Snarkiness of tone aside, an interesting article on the final decommissioning of Denver International’s never-quite-altogether-operational automated baggage system.
Ten years ago, the new Denver International Airport marched boldly into the future with a computerized baggage-handling system that immediately became famous for its ability to mangle or misplace a good portion of everything that wandered into its path.
Now the book is closing on the brilliant machine that couldn’t sort straight. Sometime over the next few weeks, in an anticlimactic moment marked and mourned by just about nobody, the only airline that ever used any part of the system will pull the plug. An episode bowing equally to John Henry, Rube Goldberg and Hal from “2001” will end.
People will be fully back in charge.
Thank you for that analysis, Ned Ludd.
“Automation always looks good on paper,” said Veronica Stevenson, a lead baggage handler for United Airlines and president of the union local that represents United’s 1,300 or so baggage handlers in Denver. “Sometimes you need real people.”
Because, of course, the baggage handler’s union is the most unbiased group to assess whether you need people to handle bags.
The problems with Denver’s baggage system — and they were quite real — were, as I recall from the time, a classic case of an ineptly handled IT project. Vague specifications. Untested technology. Huge investments of money that warranted further huge investments of money. Ongoing changes in the spec and in the schedule.
Given all that, you can mess up building a block wall, let alone an automated baggage system.
As it is, United’s been using a stripped down version of the system for outgoing baggage since the airport’s opening (only theirs was ready in time, and the other airlines declined to accept the costs, building a conventional system on top of and through the automated tracks). They’re finally shutting that aspect down, going to a fully tractored system (of which Ms Stevenson will no doubt approve) to save a net $1MM/month in operating costs.
On the bright side, all that obsolete equipment area gave the DIA folks plenty of room to put in post-9/11 baggage scanners, something that other airports (including my regular routes of Ontario and LAX) have struggled with.