AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
The Memorial Day weekend began the busiest time of year for U.S. airlines. NPR's Joel Rose got a look at how those checked bags make it through the nation's busiest airport.
(SOUNDBITE OF BAGGAGE TUG ENGINE STARTING)
JOEL ROSE, BYLINE: Before the plane even arrives, Mike Davis is on his way to the gate at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.
MIKE DAVIS: So we have two bags to pick up, with one stop.
ROSE: Davis works on the ramp - that's what the airlines call the pavement between the gates and the taxiway - driving a baggage tug that ferries luggage to and from planes. Delta Air Lines has hundreds of tugs constantly on the move from terminal to terminal and gate to gate. Davis is waiting when the flight from Providence pulls up...
(SOUNDBITE OF JET ENGINE ROARING)
ROSE: ...And bags start rolling down the conveyor belt.
DAVIS: They're taking bags off the plane, and I'm looking for MSP.
ROSE: Davis will take bags from this plane directly to another gate, where they'll catch a connecting flight to Minneapolis-Saint Paul - what the airline calls a tail-to-tail. Davis grabs two bags off the belt, and then he pulls out a handheld computer and scans the barcodes on the luggage tags.
DAVIS: So now I take it.
(SOUNDBITE OF HANDHELD COMPUTER BEEPING)
DAVIS: I scan it. It gives me a green scanning sign saying it's A-OK. So now I'ma take this and put this in my cart.
(SOUNDBITE OF BAGGAGE LANDING IN CART)
ROSE: And then Davis is off again, navigating around dozens of other tugs, trucks and planes. On a busy day, Delta handles more than a hundred thousand bags in Atlanta. Three-quarters are passing through on their way to somewhere else.
PAUL BUCKLEY: Yeah. Atlanta is an enormous operation.
ROSE: Paul Buckley is Delta's director of operations in Atlanta. To manage all this complexity, Buckley says the airline built its own AI system to help its tug drivers move bags more efficiently, like a ride-sharing app.
BUCKLEY: In our old dispatching system, we gave the drivers the bags that they were to handle, and then they, in many cases, would choose the order. And some were better than others.
ROSE: The new AI system helps drivers prioritize which bags need to go first.
DAVIS: I don't have to focus on crunching numbers and trying to figure out my own route. It does all that for me. It tells me which gate. All I got to do is just get there.
ROSE: Tug driver Mike Davis says the AI system is not perfect. Sometimes it's given him some very tight connections.
DAVIS: Where I knew that I wasn't going to make a connecting flight. However, I still took the chance and went to that gate, and the plane was still there. So lucky for me, lucky for the customer. That's something beyond my control. But what I can control is if I got 20 minutes (laughter), I'm going to make it.
ROSE: Quick connections are called hot bags. There are also cold bags, with a layover of more than two hours. They wind up here...
(SOUNDBITE OF BAGGAGE LANDING ON CONVEYOR BELT)
ROSE: ...In a sprawling bag-sorting system underneath the airport's passenger concourses, where they're fed into a massive labyrinth of conveyor belts and metal ramps. Rob Colvin has worked at Delta for more than 25 years.
ROB COLVIN: This is only one small part of it. It's enormous, and it runs throughout and underneath.
ROSE: So if I've been walking around that airport, sitting at a gate, I've been over this and had no idea that this was going on under my feet.
COLVIN: That is correct.
ROSE: Delta managers say they don't see this AI system as a replacement for their ramp employees but as an enhancer to make them more efficient. Delta says it's been especially helpful for newer drivers. And it's making the job easier for veterans like Mike Davis, who's won awards for being one of Delta's best tug drivers.
DAVIS: I had to be a critical thinker. This takes all the thought out of it.
ROSE: Do you miss it, though? You were good at that problem-solving part of it, weren't you?
DAVIS: I am, but you know how they say out with the old, in with the new? That's what it is.
ROSE: Delta says the new system has boosted efficiency by as much as 20% while helping cut the number of missed bags. That's the kind of improvement travelers notice, even if they never see where it happens.
Joel Rose, NPR News, Atlanta.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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