Tulsa International Airport Baggage Conveyor System Improved

By Rick Wells, The News On 6

TULSA, OK -- There's something new at Tulsa International Airport. It's an improvement that answers one of the most frequently asked questions about airport operations. 

It was a question Rick Wells asked in one of his "Hey, What's the Deal" stories from 14 years ago.

Passengers have been getting their bags the same way since the system was put in more than 30 years ago -- a long conveyor belt carries bags from the ground to the baggage claim on the upper level.

"The bigger challenge is that our bags have to cross a street in order to get to baggage claim," said Alexis Higgins, Tulsa Airport Authority.

So in 1978, a system of conveyor belts was installed to carry bags from ground level, up and over the road through a couple of turns before it spit them out at the appropriate baggage carousel. 

Part of the trip carried the bags through a series of steel lockers, which lead to lots of questions by passengers, which led Rick Wells to ask the same question in a story 14 years ago.

"Hey what's locked up in there? Or better yet, who's locked up in there? It's enough to have you asking ‘Hey, What's the Deal,'" Wells said 14 years ago.

When it came time to update the system, rather than change it, they just improved it.

"Just take out all the old pieces and replace them with brand new conveyors, rollers, all the mechanics of the system have changed, new motors," said Higgins.

So it works better and more reliably. The biggest change is the fact you can watch the bags as they roll along on the way to the baggage claim, but some folks still don't get it. Is it a moving sidewalk?

"And they want to know how to get on the moving sidewalk," said Higgins.

Answering the original question about the lockers, has just led to more questions about a moving sidewalk that isn't.

The baggage conveyer system moves an average of 2,700 bags each day. The peak is more than 4,000 per day during the summer travel season.