Centerlines - April 2008 - (Page 33) SAFET Y AND SECURIT Y Airport SpeedCheck Advance kiosks at Las Vegas locations including the Luxor Hotel-Casino have played a role in depeaking McCarran’s traffic. Disney strives to offer guests a hassle-free vacation experience by providing Disney’s Magical Express to help eliminate some of the stresses of travel. Roundtrip transportation and remote airline check-in are offered as part of this service. ity specifically designed for offsite check-in luggage as part of a $125 million investment to construct 225,000 square feet of space on airport grounds to house explosivesdetection equipment. “We didn’t want to have this off-airport check-in program and then take those bags and somehow squeeze them into the existing terminal baggage screening system,” Ingalls said. “We really wanted it to be entirely separate in terms of adding capacity to both the customer in the passenger screening environment, and in the baggage screening environment as well.” The TSA provided the equipment as they do in any screening situation. What is strikingly different is the technology—state-of-the-art radio frequency identification chips are utilized for tracking in the bag tags. “This gradual spin up was planned on our part,” Ingalls said. “With all of the new operations and requirements we wanted to make sure that we could walk before we tried to run. But it has gone well, and one by one the air carriers are adding on to the system, and we are working with several additional hotels beyond the Venetian and Luxor. It has worked very well for us at the Convention Center as well. And one of our most successful installations has been at the car rental center. www.aci-na.org | CENTERLINES “It is not as if we are trying to force the customers into something they don’t want to do or don’t like,” he said. “It is something that benefits us, but also greatly benefits them.” Perfect Environment From an industry perspective, Airport SpeedCheck Advance works for Las Vegas because of its large hotels and the tourism-based environment. “We have been growing significantly here over time as one of the fastest growing airports in the United States,” Ingalls said, noting community and resort industry growth has fueled the airport. “When we looked at our models and our passenger costs, we really had to focus on making sure we could process those passengers as efficiently as possible. One factor in doing that was off-airport check-in.” McCarran has a target built into the TSA’s staffing and processing models to have 10 percent of airport customers checked in offsite. “In any event, we really want, and need, to see from a capacity standpoint, a sizable chunk of our customers processed entirely outside our traditional airport environment,” Ingalls said. McCarran has been working with hotels, air carriers, the TSA and third-party handler, Bags To Go, to bring the program to fruition and expand upon its capabilities. The airport is working closely with signature properties on the Las Vegas Strip, as well as smaller, community casinos. “The casinos benefit from keeping gamers on their properties longer by offering them the check-in capability instead of running out to the airport two to three hours early,” Ingalls said. “They see a tangible financial benefit as well as the customer service benefit.” Walk Before Running While the Airport SpeedCheck Advance program is on the eve of its second anniversary, the concept has been utilized in Las Vegas previously with an off-airport check-in program up and running for a couple of years prior to 9/11. “At that time, we had 10 airlines participating and an equal amount of hotel properties, so we had some experience in setting up this type of an operation,” Ingalls said, noting that the pre-9/11 program had oversight by the FAA. “That was shut down at 9/11 and we worked after 9/11 to try and work through some of the new challenges to reactivate the program and also bring some enhancements to the program we didn’t have in the initial version.” One of the largest enhancements has been the build-out of a facil- 33 http://www.aci-na.org
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