United using new automation to track luggage at IAH

HOUSTON - Renovations at Bush Intercontinental Airport to accommodate future travel needs has United Airlines introducing new technology to make sure baggage doesn't get lost with complicated travel plans. 

As a United hub, a lot of passengers have an IAH layover on their way to someplace else. As traffic grows, the airline has invested hundreds of millions of dollars for automation to keep track of what's going where and when. 

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At a little after noon, there's an international flight to Amsterdam leaving Houston just after five. Passengers who check-in early, or have a long layover, will now have their bags sorted through United Airlines' new $300 million Early Baggage System. 

After six years of development and construction, the system is being run through its final tests to do a complicated job we take for granted. 

"From our daily highs of being able to manage 35,000 bags a day, we able to handle up to 80,000 with a system like this one," says United's Juan Escobar. 

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Below Terminal C's public areas, there is a blur of activity and cards and conveyor belts are busy moving baggage to their respective flights. Previously, luggage marked for a layover would be set-aside to wait its turn. Now, computers will track each of those bags, as robot-automation stores them until their flight time comes. Even schedule changes should be easily accommodated as the EBS updates any new plans. 

"You can start seeing electronically all those destinations start changing to their new itinerary, and the bags start going to the carousel where the fight's going to be leaving for an on-time departure," says Escobar. 

Back to the Amsterdam flight, at three hours before departure, the waiting luggage has been retrieved and delivered to be placed aboard the plane, with fewer opportunities to misplace anything. It's an important job for every flight, but more challenging as more people travel. 

"Our commitment is to get those bags and passengers to their destination at the same time," says Escobar.

The EBS is only the third of its kind in the country, and the first to be owned and operated by a private carrier. It'll be pressed into full service on April 1. 

More than 46 million people traveled through IAH in 2023, and United expects to add more. The new automation is a significant commitment to how important Houston is to the carrier's plans.