Ever Wonder How Your Luggage Is Actually Loaded Onto The Airplane?
The ins and outs of travel can be fascinating. Where do pilots sleep during a flight? How are parking spots for planes assigned? And how exactly is your luggage loaded onto an airplane? We answer that last one here.
We all know the procedure for checking luggage. Put your suitcase on the scale. Cross your fingers that it doesn't weigh too much. Breathe a sigh of relief as it's ticketed. Wave goodbye as your suitcase disappears into the airport abyss. And then, finally, say a silent prayer that it arrives at your destination at the same time you do.
But how exactly does your luggage get onto the plane? Are suitcases loaded one by one by the muscular ground crew? Perhaps a robot does the heavy lifting? In fact, it's often a mix of both. There are two main ways luggage is put on the plane: manual loading or packing into a container. The one your suitcase experiences mainly depends on the type of aircraft you're traveling on.
How your luggage makes its way onto the plane
If you're flying on a short-haul route, chances are you'll be on a narrow-body aircraft, with one aisle running through the cabin. On this type of plane, luggage is likely to be loaded manually, suitcase by suitcase. After your bags are taken to the plane on a luggage cart, they travel up a conveyor belt called a Power Stow. At the top, someone will be waiting to stack the luggage inside the plane, almost like playing a giant game of Tetris. If the airport doesn't have a conveyor (and many don't), someone will pass the luggage into the plane by hand. The order in which bags are loaded isn't totally random, so if you want to see your luggage come off baggage claim first, try this!
For long-haul flights, you'll likely board a wide-body aircraft, which has two aisles. Because this type of aircraft is generally wider than a narrow-body plane, there's space in the hold for specialized containers known as Unit Load Devices, or ULDs. ULDs come in different sizes, are packed before being taken to the plane, and are distributed by weight within the aircraft to ensure it remains balanced. ULDs lock in place in the plane's belly so they don't slide around. As cool as this is, loading is just one thing that happens to your luggage after you check it, so read more to see what else goes on behind the scenes.