For every 1m passengers with hold luggage of 25kg each, airport trolleys must handle 25,000 tonnes. Porters are available for the few, but most must carry their own luggage until it is in the hands of an airline’s ground handling staff. Airport managements appreciate that efficient luggage transport is an important service element in modern air travel and can become an important revenue stream for the operator.
Steve Hodgetts, head of business development at Cardiff International, said: “It is absolutely imperative.” One result of growing air transport will be ever-increasing volumes of luggage, though it will be difficult to determine whether returning passengers will have heavier luggage.
According to Hodgetts, both handling agents at Cardiff estimate that departing passengers have around 20kg of hold baggage that must be loaded.
“For the return journey it is hard to know what a typical weight might be. If passengers have shopped at the airport it would be in their hand luggage anyway,” he said.

Loss-maker or money-spinner?
German manufacturer Expresso is convinced that airports overlook the potential revenue luggage trolleys can provide.Nick Watts, UK airport sector sales manager, said: ”There is no doubt that in airport investment decisions, trolley provision comes very much towards the bottom of the pile. Our need is to move thinking about trolleys further up the pile. They are a serious investment, yet so many airports fail to take full advantage of the opportunities they present for extra revenue. Executives must not forget that commercial income is of growing importance to airport chiefs, yet many fail to sweat this asset fully.”
Watts identifies advertising income from panels on the trolleys and rental income from users as the two main potential income streams. Expresso only entered the UK airport sector in 2004 but has supplied trolleys to four airports – Bristol, Exeter, Belfast International and Isles of Scilly.
Watts said: “Each of our clients has different requirements in terms of predicted usage, airport terminal layout and working environment. That is why we work very closely with each airport. We do not supply a one-size-fits-all service.”

FOC route
At Cardiff, Hodgetts explained that the airport chose to make trolleys free of charge because “passengers expect the service and we differentiate on service and quality.”
However, the airport does not lose out completely as advertising panels on the trolleys generate media revenue.
His views are echoed by Jackie Baker, contracts manager at Birmingham International.
“Our trolleys are free of charge. If we do decide to have coin-operated trolleys in the future, this will be on a coin-return system. Retaining monies, by asking the passenger to pay for a trolley, would not be appropriate for the levels of customer service we strive for,” she said.
Advertising is also available on the Birmingham trolleys. “It is not possible to provide a commercial income figure as these panels often form part of a larger advertising campaign and the revenue is not split out for each area. The panels can also be used for informational purposes,” she added.

New trolley launched
Luggage Master, the result of four years R&D, was launched earlier this year by UK designer and manufacturer of airport equipment, Clares. Features of the new trolley include closer stacking, giving more efficient use of space use, and the Luggage Master’s Easy Steer mechanism which provides travellers and terminal operators with silent running and hardwearing long-life tyres.
The trolley includes a wire basket and large advertising panel with communication strip on the handle. Luggage Master has been designed for use with an RFID trolley management tag.
Richard Smith, Clares managing director, said: "The Luggage Master has been a long time in development and is the result of extensive research, consultation with terminal operators and our expertise in this sector. We've used the latest robotic techniques to produce the ultimate trolley."
Clares is the supplier of baggage trolleys to BAA and is supplying more than 40,000 units to terminal operators worldwide, including Heathrow.

Have trolleys had their day?
Trolley provision might seem to be a constant at airports and, as passenger numbers grow, surely their numbers will only increase? This will have repercussions in capital outlay, maintenance and trolley management.
However, Baker suggests trolley provision might have reached its peak. She said:
“With the introduction of wheeled suitcases, baggage trolleys could be less of an issue in the future. However, families will still need assistance with their baggage.”
By contrast, Watts is not so sure the situation will change dramatically.
“Our research shows that even people using trailed luggage will still place it on a luggage trolley when they are in the terminal,” he said.
Nat DiClaudio, Clares business development manager, added: “Luggage trolleys still very much have a future. Do you want to pull a 30kg suitcase? Even if kerbside check-in ever catches on, passengers still want to use trolleys. There is no question as to a trolley’s role as an advertising medium. They provide a good opportunity for airports to raise revenue.”
He rejected the idea that wheeled luggage could spell the end of trolleys – and even if airports would want that.
“Wheeled luggage doesn’t last forever and do get damaged. Where they can cause an airport real headaches is when the wheels come off, resulting in damaged floors,” he said.
As for the low-cost carrier which mooted the suggestion that it would not allow hold baggage, DiClaudio is not concerned.
“Hold baggage won’t be banned. Passengers will always turn up with luggage too large to go into the cabin. What will happen is that you will suddenly have to pay to take hold luggage on a journey. It was just a gimmicky suggestion,” he said.

Maintenance regime
Trolleys are assets like any other at an airport and must be maintained correctly to ensure the longest payback on the initial investment.
Birmingham’s 2,000 Clares trolleys can have their life effectively doubled by proper maintenance.
Baker said: “The life of the asset is five years, but with a good maintenance regime, this can be extended up to a decade.”
As part of its ‘whole life support’ contract with BAA, Clares maintains the equipment it supplies to BAA.
“Each trolley gets an MoT every six months,” said DiClaudio. “There is a safety check done, with wheels replaced if necessary. BAA has established a workshop solely for the repair and maintenance of trolleys at Heathrow. It has two full-time mechanics who simply maintain the trolleys for the airport.”
However, London City does not have a maintenance regime. “Our aim is to have sufficient trolleys for all passengers with hold baggage. To ensure that trolleys are in good working order at all times, our policy is to replace damaged trolleys, rather than repair them,” said a spokesperson.

Cost-efficient trolley management
Where airports have systems that require a coin or credit card to be used to obtain a trolley, it is necessary to have a trolley management system, which is normally based around a specially designed vending unit.
Expresso’s Trolley Vending Machine features, among other functions, freely programmable sequence controllers, intermediate storage of all data on flash disk and options including depot data management (ddm), power supply via storage batteries for bridging operational peaks, centralised data acquisition and a link to a data network via radio modem.

Many safe returns?
A necessity of efficient trolley use is the collection and return of trolleys from parking areas and designated places to locations from where they are taken to be used. At London City, customer services team members include the collection and return of the 300 trolleys in use at the airport as part of their duties.
“All members of staff are encouraged to return abandoned trolleys to the nearest designated storage area,” said the airport.
At Cardiff, GBM collects, distributes and looks after the airport trolleys. It is a 24-hour operation and GBM works with NCP staff who assist in the collection of trolleys from airport car parks.
One reason to use the coin deposit method, according to Expresso, is that deposit systems are available for coins of numerous currencies, and are simple and convenient to use.
After returning the cart, the passenger can remove the deposit. This results in time and cost savings, because the need to retrieve carts from all over the airport is much reduced.