Airport’s baggage scanners could be in place by July
SUMMER travel chaos may have been averted, as work progresses quickly to install new baggage scanners at Guernsey Airport.
The delayed £12m. project started in January – five years after Guernsey Airport was warned it would be needed.
Currently hold luggage is having to be hand-searched at random and this has caused delays for flights, despite the very low numbers of passengers travelling.
Steve Langlois, head of passenger operations and aviation security at Guernsey Ports, said the assembly of the new scanners and conveyor equipment in the UK was going well.
‘Once the extra space has been created in the terminal, the shipment, installation and commissioning of the systems can begin,’ he said.
‘The project team has been working very hard to implement the first of the new scanners ahead of the planned change in travel restrictions on 1 July and is optimistic that this will be achieved, despite enforced delays caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.’
Significant demolition work is now taking place at the western end of the airport passenger terminal to facilitate the new equipment.
The main wall covering the site has now been constructed and the area is enclosed from the passenger landside concourse.
‘The construction of this new wall has created the space for the new scanners and conveyor system,’ Mr Langlois said.
A floor area of approximately 390 sq. m will be created by contractors to house the baggage system and the support systems the two scanners require.
They each weigh 6.5 metric tons, which is just bigger than a medium-sized truck. They are five metres long, with a width and height of two metres. Each can process more than 1,000 items an hour.
Currently only a couple of thousand passengers are travelling through the airport each month, but there have still been delays.
Aurigny now closes check-in 45 minutes before arrival, rather than 30 minutes, in a bid to deal with the problem, and a twilight check-in has been introduced to allow people to drop off their luggage the evening before their flight.
Assuming Guernsey Airport returns to pre-pandemic levels in July, when quarantine rules are lifted, this could increase six-fold to more than 11,000.
Guernsey Ports has had to make the improvements to comply with aviation security standards.
