Airport baggage system to get $13 million fix

Lee County commissioners decided today to spend more than $13 million to upgrade a baggage system at Southwest Florida International Airport that is less than a year old.

Commissioners, acting as the board for the Lee County Port Authority, learned last year that the baggage system at the airport, which opened in September, was mishandling bags and not processing enough bags per hour.

The fully automated system also has problems reading destination tags, resulting in lost luggage and bags that do not make it to planes on time.

The problems were the result of the airport being one of the first in the country to integrate the post-Sept. 11, 2001 automated system, which scans luggage for security purposes and transports it to the appropriate airline.

Commissioners agreed to hire a consultant in March to find out what upgrades the system needs to run more smoothly.

At the time, the estimated cost of the fix was between $5 million and $10 million.

The consultant returned with an estimate of $13.4 million. That brings the total cost of the baggage system to about $43 million, said Bob Ball, executive director of the port authority.

The money to pay for the repairs will come from passenger facility charges, which are federally regulated fees that airlines collect per ticket to give back to the airport for projects pre-approved by the Federal Aviation Administration, said Ben Siegel, division director of administration for the Lee County Port Authority.

Airport officials are paying contractors extra to have the project accelerated by about 6 months so the upgrades should be in place by November, before the start of the holidays and heavy tourist season, Ball said.

Depending on passenger growth, the upgrades should make the system adequate for the next five to 10 years, Ball said.