Bergen Airport Reports Success with New BEUMER Group Baggage Handling System

Terminal 3, the new terminal at Bergen Flesland Airport in Western Norway reports operational success with its new BEUMER Group baggage handling system (BHS), in its first three months since opening. The airport is the second largest in Norway and the expansion was part of the National Transport Plan to provide capacity for up to 7.5 million passengers per year. Having dramatically outgrown its original capacity of 2.8 million, the airport currently handles more than 6 million passengers per year. From the outset, one of the key focuses for the new terminal was optimising operational and environmental efficiency, particularly for baggage handling. The performance and energy savings offered by the BEUMER Group system helped the airport achieve this goal. The flexibility of the BEUMER Group BHS improves efficiency and passenger experience at Bergen Airport, and enables all check-in positions to feature automatic Self-Bag Drop. The CrisBag system is designed to handle normal size and long bags (up to 1,400 mm), transporting them on the same track, at the same speed to reduce the use of the oversize-bag lines. The BHS system also combines the CrisStore® dynamic Early Baggage System (EBS) with the CrisBag® tote-based system, providing dynamic storage for up to 600 bags at a time and enabling on-demand retrieval of baggage for speed-loading to ULDs and trolleys. The tote-based CrisBag® system provides the flexibility for Bergen to handle normal and long bags from the same check-in desk and to transport it on the same track, at the same speed. The CrisBag also provides high-capacity, in-tote ECAC Standard 3 security screening for both standard and extended totes ensuring that Bergen Airport is secure and complies with all screening legislation. The system also delivers low operating expenses (OPEX) by minimizing the use of spare parts and energy consumption, reducing total cost of ownership. The departure system is designed with redundant loops to maintain 70% fallback capacity. The arrival system consists of five carrousels, each featuring a dedicated CrisBelt® loading line. Petter Hope, Project Manager for Terminal 3 at Bergen Airport, says, "The BHS system from BEUMER exceeds our efficiency goals. The CrisBag tote-based system is a pull-system instead of the common push-system because of the inclusion of the dynamic EBS. This meant we were able to reduce the number of sorting bins required, saving space and allowing the ground handler to plan the loading process more efficiently." "We found the electricity consumption of the CrisBag system to be considerably lower than any other suppliers bidding for the project, which is important to our "green" airport project, adds Petter Hope."