Featured Image Credit: AzmanL / Twenty47studio / Getty
Travelers are all saying the same thing after learning exactly how aeroplane hold luggage makes it onto the flight.
You’ve found an airport parking space, remembered your passport, handed in your bags at the front desk and now your vacation can really begin.
But have you ever stopped to wonder how your bags actually travel from the check-in desk to your designated flight?
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If so then you’ll be pleased to know Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, known informally as Schiphol Airport, once created a video documenting its slick baggage handling system.
The viral YouTube clip, posted in 2017, chronicles the luggage’s journey from point A to B— beginning with two handlers loading your suitcase onto the first conveyor belt.
This initial step takes place 13 meters below sea level according to Schiphol Airport’s site in a huge cellar stretching the size of 16 football pitches.
The bag is scanned by an automated machine to determine its final destination before it is sent whizzing along the correct tracks.
These conveyor belts transport your luggage to the right underground hall.
This is either the one processing transfer baggage from scheduled flights or the other dealing with charter flight luggage.
Once your suitcase is in the right baggage hall, a robot will load it into the correct bay before it’s transferred to the plane hold.
Simple right? Well yes, as long as you haven’t checked in too early or your flight has been delayed.
If your bags aren’t going straight on the plane then your personal item will be held in one of the airport’s buffer zones.
This secure area can hold 8,100 suitcases at one time and here it will sit until your aircraft is ready for departure.
When it’s time to put your bags in the hold, coordinators will give the green light and your bag will automatically return to one of the baggage belts.
The earlier process will then be repeated and hey presto — your luggage is on your plane ready for takeoff.
According to Schiphol Airport’s official site, there are more than 30km of baggage belts while the longest distance a case can cover in one go around is an outstanding 2.5km.
After watching the three-minute clip, viewers have come out in droves to have their say.
One typed: “I never knew that my luggage is having so much fun. Next time you are coming with me in the cabin.”
“So my luggage gets to ride a roller coaster and all I get is a stupid plane,” remarked a second YouTube user.
“Feels like my luggage actually just goes through a load of underground conveyors directly to my destination rather than on the plane,” penned someone else.
A fourth commented: “I'd definitely take a ride in this.”
