July 30, 2015
Jensen Werley
Reporter, Jacksonville Business Journal
Jacksonville travelers can expect an update to Jacksonville International Airport; they should also prepare for a change to their travel routine.
The airport is installing a $19 million new baggage screening system, including updates to equipment and conveyer belts for checked luggage. TSA will pay for 90 percent, the Jacksonville Aviation Authority will cover the remaining 10 percent. The project should be completed in the next 12 to 14 months.
In the interim, though, temporary baggage checks will be placed near the ticket counters on the north and south side of the airport, said spokeswoman Debbie Jones. Rather than dropping off luggage at the ticket counter, guests will have to wheel their luggage over to the temporary screening station, where a TSA agent will examine it there before it is loaded onto a plane.
The upgrade comes 13 years after the JIA's current system was installed. The new equipment will feature more up-to-date software to better handle the 4,500 pieces of luggage that the airport checks each day.
“It's just come to then end of its useful life,” Jones said of its current system. “We've had it since 2002. [Upgrading] is definitely what we needed for our airport.”
Source: http://ow.ly/QkfWx
