Inside ATL: how Delta juggles 100,000 bags a day at the world's busiest airport

Mike Davis works on the ramp at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, picking up luggage as planes arrive and scanning bar codes on tags using a rugged handheld computer. Bags move continuously between terminals and gates, with drivers navigating around many other vehicles and aircraft. Memorial Day marks the busiest period for U.S. airlines, and Delta handles more than 100,000 bags in Atlanta on a busy day, with most bags passing through en route to final destinations. Multiple airline employees handle each bag during its journey. Delta built an AI system to help tug drivers move bags more efficiently by determining delivery order, replacing an older dispatch approach that left sequencing to drivers and varied performance.

"Davis works for Delta Air Lines on the ramp, as airlines call the bustling area of pavement between the terminal and the taxiway. He's waiting when the jet pulls up, and bags start rolling down the conveyor belt. Davis grabs two suitcases off the belt, pulls out a handheld computer that looks like an extra-rugged iPad, and scans the bar codes on the luggage tags. "Now I take it, I scan it, it gives me a green scan sign saying it's A-okay," Davis said."

"Memorial Day kicks off the busiest time of year for U.S. airlines, with millions of passengers in the air and millions of bags too. On a busy day, Delta handles more than 100,000 bags in Atlanta alone, with three-quarters passing through en route to their final destinations. An average of nine airline employees handle each of those bags at some point on its journey."

""Atlanta is an enormous operation, Delta's biggest by a long way," said Paul Buckley, Delta's director of operations here. To manage all of this complexity, the airline built its own AI system to help its tug drivers move bags more efficiently, like a ridesharing algorithm. "In our old dispatching system, we gave the drivers the bags that they were to handle. And then they, in many cases, would choose the order. And some were better than others."

""Now we have consistency, because we know exactly what order we're delivering them in," Buckley said. The AI system helps drivers prior"

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