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AirportImprovement.com      September 2026
BAGGAGE 
PGD
The design includes space for an additional baggage makeup 
carousel in case another is needed in the future.
Broad Input
Minimizing disruption during construction became a guiding principle 
from the earliest stages of design. Representatives from every airport 
department reviewed construction plans and identified potential 
operational conflicts before work began.
“We included all of our teams in the discussion,” Laroche says. 
“Everybody got to look at the plan and have input.”
That collaborative approach helped the project team develop 
strategies that kept passengers moving as construction 
progressed. And because AECOM designed the new baggage 
facility as a standalone addition, travelers were not in areas where 
work was occurring. 
“It wasn’t as bad as you might think from a passenger 
experience,” Henriquez says. “Ninety percent of the project didn’t 
impact the public. It impacted airport operations, but not the public.”
When making critical tie-ins between the new baggage system 
and existing terminal, crews worked at night and coordinated 
construction activities to minimize noise and operational disruptions.
When inline screening went live this January, PGD operated the 
old and new baggage handling systems simultaneously for several 
weeks to create a smooth transition.
“This way, if the new system went down, we still had the old 
system to use as a backup,” Laroche says.
Schedule Hiccups 
The project team hit an unexpected obstacle when AECOM realized 
the airport lacked the electrical infrastructure needed to power the 
new system.
“We had to bring in new three-phase service immediately,” 
Henriquez recalls.
To improve resiliency, engineers added an emergency generator 
designed to keep critical portions of the baggage handling system 
operational during power outages. The generator is sized for the 
inline baggage project and the terminal expansion currently under 
construction. 
“At many airports, the baggage handling system can’t function 
during a power outage,” Hass adds. “We wanted to give the airport 
limited baggage handling and screening functionality when the 
power went out.”
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