Just in time as more flights are scheduled to take off from St. Louis.
Friday, September 17, 2010, 12:30pm
Lambert airport gets $42M for baggage screening
Lambert-St. Louis International Airport has been awarded more than $42 million in federal funding, more than half of it from the stimulus package, for a new baggage screening system.
The new system will streamline the ticketing process by eliminating the need for passengers to carry their luggage from ticket counters to current baggage screening areas in the ticket lobby, Lambert officials said. The operations will also be centralized, and the technology will reduce the number of re-scans and physical bag searches, according to airport officials.
Lambert will receive $29 million in stimulus money for the construction of a new screening system in Terminal 1 and an additional $13.6 million from the fiscal 2010 appropriations for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for a new screening system in Terminal 2, which services Southwest Airlines, the airport’s largest carrier.
The funding will total the single largest investment at Lambert focused on enhanced airport security measures.
“This funding gives Lambert and the Transportation Security Administration tremendous technological advances to ensure the safety of our passengers and improves the passenger experience to the same level as many other airports in the country,” Lambert Director Rhonda Hamm-Niebruegge said in a statement Friday.
In July, the Department of Homeland Security also awarded $3.1 million in stimulus funding to Lambert for an upgraded baggage screening system. That smaller award paved the way for the release of the funding announced Friday.
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