Siemens to extend baggage handling system at Munich Airport Terminal 2 - Increase in passengers at Germany's second largest airport necessitates system expansion
Berlin, Germany, 2011-Aug-29
Siemens Mobility has won an order from the Terminal 2 Management Company (a joint venture of the Munich Airport GmbH and German Lufthansa AG) to extend the baggage handling system and the early bag store at Terminal 2 of Germany's second largest airport. The sorting capacity of the baggage handling system and the storage capacity of the early bag facility are to be increased by about 30 percent. The reason for this is the growth in volume of passenger traffic at Munich Airport. The extension and conversion work will be carried out during ongoing operations and is scheduled to be completed by late November 2012. The order is worth some 63 million Euros.
Munich Airport (MUC in IATA code) is the second largest aviation hub in Germany and is attracting more and more passengers. During the first 6 months of 2011 Munich Airport GmbH registered just under 18 million passengers, up more than 13 percent on the same period last year. To ensure that baggage continues to be handled in future just as reliably and quickly, despite a rise in passenger numbers and more stringent security requirements, Siemens Mobility will be boosting the performance of the baggage handling system in Terminal 2 by about one third, installing some 2,000 new sorter elements in the process. The conveyor belts are currently over 40 kilometers long and transport, scan and sort around 14,000 bags every hour at a speed of up to 25 kilometers per hour.
Siemens will also be expanding the storage capacity of the early bag store in and around Terminal 2 by increasing the number of spaces from 3,700 to about 4,700. The early bag store holds bags and cases that have been checked in several hours before take-off, for example during the previous evening. As take-off time approaches, these bags are fed back into the system and transported to the aircrafts. The expansion of the baggage handling system and early bag store is intended to maintain the very short "Minimum Connection Time" of 30 minutes in Terminal 2 despite the growth in passenger traffic. This is the minimum time required between one aircraft landing and the next one taking off for passengers to be able to reach their connecting flights together with their luggage.
As general contractor, Siemens is responsible for the layout, engineering, installation, integration and commissioning of the new baggage handling system. The special challenge behind this order is that conversion and extension work has to be carried out during regular airport operations. The only break in operation is a four-hour period at night, otherwise the system constantly runs at full speed.
Siemens designed and built the baggage handling system for Munich Terminal 2 that went into operation in 2003 as a consortium leader. Siemens has also been responsible since 2010 for maintaining the mechanical, electrical and control components of the system. ?