Automated Screening Makes Debut at JFK T4’s Security Checkpoint Lanes
Officials cutting the ribbon to inaugurate the new security lanes
NEW YORK—The first four automated screening lanes, a new design for security checkpoints in the United States, were put into service Wednesday at John F. Kennedy International Airport’s Terminal 4, the International Arrivals Terminal.
The design of the new lanes allows as many as five passengers at a time to fill bins with belongings in each lane, thereby moving through the process at a quicker pace. To further lessen the wait, the lanes use a conveyor system to automatically return empty bins to the front of the line.
Eventually, 14 lanes at the Transportation Security Administration checkpoint will use the new technology. The project was undertaken in cooperation with Delta Air Lines and the TSA.
Each lane has an automated belt that moves bags into the X-ray machines while diverting items that require further screening, a key feature that allows bins behind them to continue through the screening process uninterrupted.
Two lanes are also being installed at the American Airlines Terminal, T8, at JFK, as well three in the Delta Air Lines Terminal, T2.
Terminal 4, which opened in 2001 and was designed by Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill, replaced the original 1957 International Arrivals Building, which had become obsolete, on the same site. It is managed by a subsidiary of the Schiphol Group, which operates Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport, and is a major hub for Delta as well as home to approximately 30 non-U.S. airlines including Air India, Avianca, China Southern, El Al, KLM, Swiss, Virgin Atlantic, and WestJet.
(Photo: Accura Media Group)
