I think the last innovation the trays we use at airport security lines saw was placing ads on them. Staff shuffle them around - they always seem to be away from where the passengers really need them. So, I was pleased to see Holger Mueller describe an innovation he saw in Sweden
"We all know the drill. You have passed the boarding pass and ID check and still have to wait for you and your belongings to be further scrutinized, before you can make it to your plane. It is a classic automation problem, for which airports all over the world have come up with different solutions. The most common answer, however, is to make you put your carry-on belongings on a tray. That helps prevent loss of loose objects, which would delay the entire continuity of the checkpoint.
But the solution to one problem often creates another: How do you get the empty trays back to eagerly awaiting passengers? In the US we've all seen the built-at-home carts that are shoved back to the front of the security line. That's been the solution pretty much everywhere else, too.
Excluding, of course, the efficiency minded Germany and Switzerland. Here the empty trays are placed vertically (more trays, less space) before sliding down an incline to the beginning of the checkpoint. Nice.
However, last weekend I discovered an even more
sophisticated solution at Stockholm's
Arlanda airport: While waiting in line I was already surprised by how fast it
was moving. As I approached I could see that the passengers in front of me,
were retrieving trays from a seemingly endless supply beneath the transport
belt. No security personnel were involved in pushing tray-loaded carts back. No
hiccups or delays, just a seamless flow out of the of the wooden paneled (it's Scandinavia) tray-construction's.
Surely someone was quite busy at the other end of the line, placing trays on the returning conveyor belt. When I reached the end of tray line however, to my surprise, the trays got on their return journey by themselves. When picking up my belongings the mystery was solved: Via light sensor barriers and a camera, the system would wait till a passenger had collected all content from their tray(s). I then also noticed that the blue base of the tray must play a role. Once the tray was empty, it was automatically transported forward to a trap door-like segment of the conveyor belt. It would seesaw, gravity doing its job and setting the tray on its rolling way back to the front of the security line, hidden beneath the forward moving belt with the passenger belongings.
Credit to Arlanda and the Swedes for the fastest solution to the tray turnaround challenge that all airport security checkpoints see these days. Have you seen other, possibly even better solutions?"
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