Southwest Airlines, a major U.S. airline with almost 127 million annual passengers and the largest carrier of domestic passengers in the United States, has chosen Leonardo’s sorter technology to reshape the transfer bags facility at Denver International Airport (DEN). The move aims to guarantee faster connection times, accommodate tight flight schedules and enhance capacity to handle future passenger volume growth effectively. DEN is one of the busiest airline hubs with over 69 million passengers having traveled through it in 2022, it comes-in-third among the world’s top-ten busiest airports.
The contract, worth over €25 million, will provide a solution designed in response to Southwest’s specific requirements, to remove the root cause of inefficiencies experienced due to labour intensive, manual sortation, tail-to-tail transfer bag approach at Southwest Denver.
One of the key highlights of the project is the introduction of cross-belt sorter technology marking a ground-breaking milestone in the United States. Leonardo’s cross-belt sorter (MBHS – Multi-sorting Baggage Handling System), as a proven and reliable technology, offers numerous advantages over traditional systems including enhanced accuracy, increased sorting speed and improved scalability. This will enable Southwest to experience significant improvements in operational efficiency, automatic precise sortation of transfer bags, reduced operator workload and elimination of existing pain points.
Leonardo’s solution will comprise 1 MBHS cross-belt sorter with three induction lines for a total length of about 500 m/1,640 ft to serve 94 destinations. There will also be two conveyor-based bags buffers. The system features additional technological innovations including advanced IT systems for management, flow management software for intelligent routing and a diagnostic system.
