Felipe Ángeles International Airport

March 21, 2022, marked the inauguration of the new Felipe Ángeles International Airport in Mexico City by Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. Alstef Group designed, manufactured, installed, integrated, and is now providing on-site support for the baggage handling system.

About this Project

Location: Mexico City, Mexico
Awarded: August 2020
ALSTEF GROUP contractor, Beumer Group supplied four Tilt-tray sorters

In August 2020, Alstef Group was awarded the contract to design, supply, install, commission, control, operate, and maintain the baggage handling system (BHS) by the Secretariat of National Defence (SEDENA). The project is the largest BHS contract to be awarded in the Latin America region since the beginning of the COVID pandemic. Adding to the complexities of delivering a large-scale project during a global pandemic, the construction of the runway, terminal, and access roads occurred simultaneously, making for a busy and challenging site.

After 19 months of commitment and teamwork, the completed BHS system comprises 120 check-in positions, two primary tilt-tray sorters distributing bags to six Standard 3 EDS units, four transfer lines, two secondary tilt-tray sorters for sortation to the 12 make-up carousels, and early bag store, and seven reclaim line subsystems with double fed carousels and customs screening.

The solution is controlled by Alstef Group’s proprietary BHS control suite BAGWARE, including BAGSORT – Sortation, Allocation, Control (SAC) solution, BAGANALYTICS – Business Process Intelligence, and BAGVIEW, Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) software.

The contract includes 20 new state-of-the-art Self-Service Bag Drops (SSBDs) in the final stages of commissioning and soon to add advanced automation to the check-in process. The SSBDs are a collaboration between Alstef Group and airline IT expert SITA, with the companies combining their expertise to develop an industry-leading product. “This is the first installation of our new collaborative SSBD design, but the technology has been tried and tested by both companies” says Philippe Hamon, Alstef Group Airport Sales Director. “Alstef Group brings the baggage handling conveyor expertise, including AI technology and advanced inline camera-based tag reading, while SITA with Smart Path, automates the passenger journey at every step and provides the self-service kiosk and airline integration expertise” continues Philippe.

The combined approach of the two companies has resulted in a world-class product that will be officially launched at the 2022 Passenger Terminal Expo in Paris from June 15-17.

The contract includes operations and maintenance of the BHS, and Alstef Group has now established a local office to support the airport and the broader Mexican market. The company is presently working at four other Mexican airports operated by Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacífico (GAP) delivering in-bound reclaim solutions.

In addition, BAGXPERT, Alstef Group’s self-learning, adaptive predictive maintenance solution, will enable the airport and its operations and maintenance team to anticipate failures, identify risks, and reorganize maintenance activity in real-time to safeguard ongoing operations.

The new airport located 43 km from the city centre, can facilitate the processing of up to 22 million passengers per annum and will begin to relieve congestion from Mexico City’s – Benito Juárez International Airport, which is currently Latin America’s busiest airport. “Latin America remains a key market for the Alstef Group and we are committed to offering our customers local, dedicated, expert sales and support staff to assist with future works in the region,” states Philippe.