Delta works to improve baggage service

Delta Air Lines has completed the first phase of $100 million in improvements for baggage handling using tunnels and technology at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. And the airline says some of the changes have already cut back on baggage problems.

The Atlanta-based airline, the largest carrier at Hartsfield-Jackson, generally performs worse in baggage handling than other major carriers.

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ELISSA EUBANKS/eeubanks@ajc.com

Part of Delta’s problem with baggage handling has been outdated technology and decades-old infrastructure in Atlanta.

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ELISSA EUBANKS/eeubanks@ajc.com

Delta employee Thomas Dolan Jr. keeps a watchful eye on the ground to see who is available to pick up baggage from an incoming flight

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“Our baggage performance has been bottom tier,” acknowledged Delta senior vice president of airport customer service Gil West.

In July 2007, for example, Delta had 9.29 reports of mishandled bags per 1,000 passengers, including lost, delayed, damaged and pilfered bags, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation. Delta improved its baggage handling performance by 39 percent this July, according to the U.S. DOT — to 5.65 reports per 1,000 passengers. But Delta still ranks well below the leading carrier, Northwest, which had 3.09 reports per 1,000 passengers.

Baggage handling is a factor that passengers use “to judge whether or not airlines fulfilled their promise,” said Dean Headley, co-author of the Airline Quality Rating and associate professor of marketing at Wichita State University. Airlines have “upped the ante on the performance because now they’re charging people” to check bags. Delta has increased its charge for checking a second bag to $50, while other airlines have started charging for first and second checked bags.

Part of Delta’s problem with baggage handling has been outdated technology and decades-old infrastructure in Atlanta, Delta’s largest hub where it operates about 1,000 flights a day. Delta will handle more than 30 million bags this year at Hartsfield-Jackson.

With recently installed conveyors, new baggage scanning systems and more work underway, Delta is hoping to narrow the gap, said Greg Kennedy, Delta’s Atlanta hub vice president of airport customer service.

Over the summer, Delta finished a conveyor system using a tunnel that runs from the terminal to the south side of the B Concourse. The tunnels have been vacant since the failure of Eastern Airlines. The conveyors allow Delta to free up space in the congested terminal basement.

Now under construction in the bowels of the airport is a conveyor system to the north side of the B Concourse to be tested for bugs and completed by the end of this year.

The new system is expected to help the airline significantly improve its baggage handling by directing bags to a larger system of carousels for sorting. “We’ll really see the benefits kicking in next year,” West said.

The five miles of conveyors are being built by Vanderlande Industries, which has its North America headquarters in Marietta. The conveyors allow bags that are awaiting connecting flights for more than two hours to be distributed at the right time, instead of being stored for later flights for workers to retrieve.

Delta said it does not plan to cut staff due to the new infrastructure, but will be able to move more staff to other areas as a result.

The conveyors also cut back on some of the hassles of dealing with congestion above ground, where baggage handling tugs must navigate across the tarmac and taxiways along with airplanes and other vehicles. Like crowded Atlanta roads, the traffic at the airport can make a trip take longer, all while airplanes are on tight schedules for takeoff.

Delta also put in place earlier this year a system to scan bags as they’re loaded onto planes, which other airlines have had for years to better pinpoint where missing bags went astray.

In the works is a system to track bags through other points of their journey, including through bag rooms. After its proposed merger with Eagan, Minn.-based Northwest Airlines, Delta plans to add technology from Northwest to detect when scanned bags are being loaded onto the wrong plane.

“As we work to improve our processes, we’re playing catch-up to some degree to the rest of the industry,” Kennedy said.