Remote baggage check-in missing in gaming capital

Thursday, June 6, 2002 | 11:15 a.m.

A Henderson company that pioneered remote baggage check-in for airline passengers nationwide revealed this week that it was cleared by federal authorities to resume operations within three months of last fall's terrorist attacks.

But the company couldn't get the financial support it needed to re-open its doors.

Certified Airline Passenger Services, Henderson, was shut down by the Federal Aviation Administration after terrorists hijacked four airliners Sept. 11 and authorities subsequently rewrote many of their security rules. While the FAA gradually certified a number of aviation-related businesses to resume operations following the attacks, CAPS was forced to wait until late November to be cleared.

CAPS Chairman Jerome Snyder said by then, most of the 125-person work force, which had been laid off for weeks, had found new jobs and it would have taken an estimated $1.5 million to $2 million to get the company running again with new help. Snyder said company executives couldn't persuade airline, resort and airport partners to help shoulder that financial burden and investors didn't have the appetite for taking on all the risk.

CAPS had been considered one of the nation's leaders in the development of remote baggage check-in sites to relieve airport congestion. The FAA certified the company to check in passengers for flights and transport their baggage to McCarran International Airport for $6 a passenger.

When CAPS was shut down, the company was operating check-in counters at 13 resorts and the Alamo car rental agency and had contracts with 10 airlines at McCarran. In August, the company had 20,000 customers after experiencing double-digit percentage growth every month since January 2001.

Corporate executives had proposals to implement similar off-airport baggage check-in programs in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Dallas, Miami and Orlando, Fla., and company officials were invited to speak at national conferences on solving airport congestion.

In the month immediately following the attacks, 70 CAPS employees were laid off while the FAA and a new federal agency, the Transportation Security Administration, rewrote airport security rules.

Snyder said some of the new rules wouldn't have placed much of a burden on the company -- but starting over with a new work force, including training and certifying employees, would. Snyder is convinced that remote check-in is needed in Las Vegas.

"It's a concept that is absolutely essential," said Snyder, a Las Vegas attorney. "But lip service (from airlines, hotels and the airport) just doesn't cut it. Now, the Orlandos, Chicagos and San Franciscos of the world are going to be ahead of the curve with remote check-ins at their airports."

Orlando, in fact, is on the verge of developing a remote check-in program similar to the one operated for 2 1/2 years by CAPS.

Judy Aakeberg, senior director of administration at Orlando International Airport, said a program is in the formative stages and involves a remote check-in service from counters at two Orlando hotels.

A company known as Baggage Airline Guest Services is working with two properties owned by hotelier Harris Rosen.

The Orlando service has studied CAPS and has adopted the basic elements of the Las Vegas company's business plan. Snyder said when CAPS explored working in Orlando, it was in partnership negotiations with Walt Disney World and its resorts, a competitor of Rosen.

Airports around the country are taking another look at remote check-in concepts, since airport officials are concerned that new security mandates due to be implemented by the government Dec. 31 will produce long lines for fliers.

By that date, the government says all bags will have to be screened by an explosives detection system.

Rosemary Vassiliadis, deputy director of aviation at McCarran, said several details haven't been finalized, including where about 50 truck-sized explosives detection machines will be placed in the airport and how remodeling to accommodate those machines would be paid for.

There also are questions about how bags checked in remotely would be screened and matched with passengers getting on planes.

Los Angeles is considering building an off-airport center for all passenger and baggage check-in and a mile-long tunnel to ferry luggage to planes.

Snyder said he did not how the Orlando operation could get investors while CAPS couldn't.

He said McCarran officials were reluctant to contract with CAPS because McCarran can't favor one business over another and that Southwest Airlines was supportive of the company, but did not want to invest in it.