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Hopkins Introduces New Baggage Screening System

Hopkins airport baggage conveyor belts [Tim Dubravetz / ideastream]

Checking in bags will be a little easier at Cleveland Hopkins airport starting today.  For passengers flying United, JetBlue, Southwest and Air Canada, they can drop off their bags at the ticket counter as they did in the days before 9-11. 

“No longer will passengers have to take their bag to another location,” says Robert Kennedy, Director of Airports.

The bag security screening will now happen behind the scenes rather than at big machines in the ticketing lobby.  Standing beside a maze of baggage conveyer belts, Kennedy says the new system is a technological and mechanical improvement.

“So the speed of delivery from the ticket counter out to the flight will be much more reliable.  It’ll be enhanced for the departure of the aircraft.  And remove the inconvenience of dropping your bag.”

Kennedy adds, the old screening machines should be out of the lobby by mid or late January.

“It will be like adding almost 4000 square feet to our terminals once we have those machines out of there.  So it will enhance the guest experience here.”

The new in-line system is still being live tested but Kennedy expects all airlines will use the new baggage security system by the new year. 

 

Annie Wu is the deputy editor of digital content for Ideastream Public Media.