A new world airport and its baggage
Summary
An in-depth history of Denver International Airport’s baggage handling saga, detailing the ambitious Telecar automation, the complex underground tunnel network, and the technical and political challenges that delayed opening. The piece explains how contracting turmoil, software and hardware failures, and public demonstrations led to a largely manual baggage system for years, while offering lessons for modern large-scale automation projects. It concludes that while the DIA baggage project failed to meet its targets, it influenced subsequent airport automation designs and the broader discourse on automation in logistics.