United's Fliers Can Relax a Bit: Denver Baggage System Is Lost

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United's Fliers Can Relax a Bit: Denver Baggage System Is Lost

By SCOTT MCCARTNEY
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
June 7, 2005; Page D5

UALCorp.'s United Airlines finally is giving up on its expensive, ill-functioning automated baggage system at Denver International Airport.

The $250 million system -- which delayed the opening of the airport 16 months until February 1995 and became the butt of jokes as it chewed up and lost luggage -- will be turned off, said Pete McDonald, United's chief operating officer.

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Denver's airport had hoped to develop a high-tech marvel of a baggage system, one that would place each piece of luggage in a cart propelled along miles of underground track. Carts would communicate with computers over radio frequencies, and bags would be deposited at assigned destinations.

However, from the start, the project was star-crossed. The city spent about $100 million more for construction and $341 million in extra interest payments trying to get it to work before the airport opened. Even when the system was being demonstrated in front of TV cameras, cars sometimes shot their luggage onto the tracks, where the bags got sliced up by other cars. Computers were overwhelmed by data from the cars, and bags were delayed. The airport subsequently handed the system over to United -- the only airline willing to use it.

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