New high-tech tags could speed luggage movement

Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2003 | 11:18 a.m.

Baggage moving through McCarran International Airport could soon move at a swifter, safer pace thanks to a new tagging system approved Tuesday by the Clark County Commission.

The $25 million contract with Matrics Inc., based in Columbia, Md., and FKI Logistex of Danville, Ky., provides for the placing of tiny computer chips on outgoing passengers' luggage tags. Those chips identify which bags have been screened, their destination and other information.

The "Radio Frequency Identification" technology helps ensure that all bags are screened for explosives, a goal of the federal Transportation Security Administration. Randy Walker, airport director, said the system will help the TSA, the traveler and the airport "by reducing the incidence of lost or mishandled bags while ensuring screened bags are delivered to the right place at the right time." Passengers won't notice the chips, but they could see a change from the current system in which a bag is checked at the ticket counter then carried by the passenger to the screening point.

Instead, passengers will check their bags with the airline, and from there the bags will automatically be redirected to a central screening point, Walker said.

"All that junk, the screening machines, will go away," he said. "You will go check your bags, the airline will tag it, the bag will go behind the wall. At least the ticketing process will go back to pretty close to what is was before 9-11."

The new system will require miles of new baggage carrying conveyors, he said, "a very big part of the contract."

The tags will be embedded in the traditional luggage tag, which will be printed and attached to bags at the ticket counter or curbside. Each tag will carry a unique identifier and will be read while the bag is being transported on conveyors on the way to the plane.

Walker said the process will bring better security and fewer lost bags. The current system uses bar-code technology similar to the one used at supermarkets and requires manual scanning to direct the bags.

John Shoemaker, Matrics vice president of corporate development, said McCarran will be the first airport to employ the system and at least a half-dozen others are waiting in the wings.

Once a bag has been screened and found to be bomb-free, it will remain that way as long as it is within the system, he said.

The $25 million contract with Matrics Inc. and FKI Logistex covers the cost of the chips and readers. The total cost of the new system, including miles of baggage belts, is $125 million. Walker said 75 percent of that cost is covered by a Transportation Security Administration grant.

Some of the changes should be up and running by next spring.