The system handles all the checked luggage that moves through the airport, carrying bags from the check-in counter through security to the plane. The new system can handle more than twice as many bags as its predecessor, meaning bags are less likely to miss flights and flights are less likely to be delayed because of missing baggage, officials said.<\/p>\n
The new system consists of a mile-and-a-half of conveyor belts that can transport up to 4,000 bags each hour across the property. Nearly 22 million passengers flew\u00a0through AUS in 2024<\/a>, but the new system is designed to accommodate up to 37 million passengers annually, airport CEO\u00a0Ghizlane Badawi said at a ribbon-cutting ceremony Wednesday.<\/p>\n \u201cThat added capacity means AUS can continue to keep pace with the incredible growth of Central Texas while improving the reliability and the overall travel experience for our passengers,\u201d Badawi said.<\/p>\n The $241.5 million, revenue-funded project is part of the \u201cJourney with\u00a0AUS\u201d airport expansion plan and was constructed in two phases. Construction began in 2022 and the first phase came online in 2024. The second phase, unveiled Wednesday, was completed ahead of schedule; the project was initially scheduled to wrap next year in the spring.<\/p>\n Annual passenger counts routinely eclipse 20 million at Austin\u2019s airport, though the facility is designed to handle just 15 million. October was the busiest month in history<\/a> at the airport,\u00a0which is projected to see around 30 million annual travelers by 2030.<\/p>\n \u201cAustin is a city that is on the move. Good things are happening in Austin, Texas, and our airport has to move with it,\u201d Mayor Kirk Watson said Wednesday. \u201cA more efficient airport means a more connected and more competitive city.\u201d<\/p>\n Several other Journey with AUS projects to add capacity are already complete. Most recently, improvements to the international arrivals hall added two new international baggage carousels, increased the number of U.S. Customs and Border Protection booths and doubled the size of the area where passengers wait to go through customs. Others are currently in the works. including an\u00a0expansion of the terminal\u2019s upper level<\/a>, a\u00a0new parking garage<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0three new gates<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The system handles all the checked luggage that moves through the airport, carrying bags from the check-in counter…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":83530,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133,17161,910,251,27],"class_list":["post-83529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news","tag-austin-bergstrom-international-airport-abia","tag-business","tag-local-news","tag-texas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83529","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83529"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83529\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}