Airport to modernize baggage handling systems

Miami International Airport plans to modernize all of its baggage handling systems, which have been an issue at the airport for several decades.

In seeking county commission approval for a pair of $8.3 million contracts to evaluate airport baggage handling systems that would include replacing, repairing and modifying the equipment, Mayor Daniella Levine Cava wrote that the work would “further enhance customer satisfaction levels.”

From commissioners’ perspective, the issue has long been less rosy.

“We obviously get a lot of complaints about the baggage handling at the airport and the times that they take to come out,” Commissioner Natalie Milian Orbis told the Airport Committee last week as it recommended both contracts by 3-0 votes.

The concern is not new. In 2018, as commissioners were voting to raise the price of a baggage handling upgrade then to $230 million, Commissioner Dennis Moss cited his own experiences at the airport’s baggage claim as a reason to approve a higher contract price.

It’s “been one of the most frustrating experiences that I had,” he said. “Hopefully, this will allow us to provide the services and make sure we take care of our traveling public a lot better.”

The two contracts for professional services that the Airport Committee recommended last week would pay first-ranked firm Introba Inc. of St. Louis and second-ranked BNP Associates Inc. of Fairfield, CT, $8.3 million apiece for five-year terms plus five-year renewal periods.

They would provide architectural and engineering design services to evaluate new and existing baggage handling systems throughout the airport, which is in the midst of $9 billion in capital changes and upgrades that will see the addition of new concourses and expansions of others.

“The professional design and inspection services offered … will evaluate the condition of MIA’s existing baggage handling systems and provide the design services needed to replace the systems as well as the components that tie into the systems,” a county memo explains.

A centralized database will track the baggage handling work, Aviation Director Ralph Cutié told the Airport Committee.

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