LONDON – Munich Airport’s Terminal 2 facility will be renovated to improve the security checkpoint of the terminal.
Currently, it still uses outdated traditional checkpoints, but after the renovation, which is expected to be completed in the fall of 2024, it will use state-of-the-art technology.
As a result, passengers of Lufthansa and its partners can benefit from faster, more effective procedures and much greater convenience.
The project has been started on 12 December 2022, when Lufthansa’s Service Center on departure level 4 has been sealed off and dismantled to create more space.
Instead, another Service Center will be created at the southern part of the terminal. During the renovation phase of the screening lanes in January, passengers will be rerouted, and the number of lanes could be reduced at times.
Improved security screening
Once the screening lanes have been renovated, passengers can benefit from a total of 15 new security screening lanes that meet the highest standards in terms of convenience and ergonomics.
The Southern Air Office of the regional government of Upper Bavaria, the body responsible for passenger checkpoints at Munich Airport, is installing special CT scanners here.
As well as checking all items of carry-on baggage for solid and liquid explosives, the CT scanners provide the screening staff with a three-dimensional view of each carry-on baggage item on a screen.
These new CT scanners mean that electronic devices and liquids will no longer have to be removed from passengers’ baggage. All personal items will be placed in large trays at the four preparation points of each lane and returned on a long output conveyor with lots of individual space.
Passengers can take as much time as they need, and can even overtake slower passengers. As the modern screening lanes are so efficient, the passenger flow per screening lane can be increased significantly compared with the conventional screening lanes.
From now on, the central passenger checkpoint in Terminal 2 is being converted to the new technology in six construction phases. Upgrading of the first three screening lanes in Terminal 1 will start in the first quarter of 2023.
In periods with high traffic volume, e.g. at Pentecost or during the Oktoberfest, the renovation work will be temporarily suspended to ensure sufficient screening lanes and smooth screening during these busy periods with particularly large numbers of passengers.
Munich Airport will then be the first airport in Germany to be almost entirely equipped with the new security technology and convenient screening lanes.
Change
The improvement of the screening area can be linked to one of the many TRIZ principles that exist, namely a change and an improvement in the first principle, namely segregation.
In the security areas, people must walk through the body scan for security to find anything off and that’s not allowed. By improving the security, you’re also reducing the risk people are going to face later.
Not only is this going to improve the passenger’s experience overall, but it will also allow for a greater capacity of passengers that can travel at any given moment. Airports must always be designed for a certain period of the peak moment.
Many airports in Europe allow themselves to be at an optimal level at the 30th peak hour, but that doesn’t always have to be the case.
If the airport designs the terminal (or the security area) at the top of the peak hour, then there will always be an overdesign, which can result in the airport wasting money ineffectively.
We saw instances of this during the COVID pandemic, where some airports, like Gatwick, shut down an entire terminal, because there just wasn’t any need to use it.
