Passenger Terminal World - Passenger Terminal World January 2026
Sequence logic
2025-12-06 10:18:31
Sequence logic
Alicyn Bell, senior director of new technology product development, explains how Leidos can make passenger divest lanes smarter
As air travel continues to surpass pre-pandemic levels, airports face mounting pressure to keep passengers moving efficiently through checkpoints. Next-generation cabin baggage and passenger security scanners are central to this effort, helping to streamline checkpoints, cut wait times and ease traveler stress. In the UK, where nearly 90% of passengers are screened with these systems, average security wait times have fallen to 15 minutes and passenger satisfaction has risen significantly.
But scanners alone cannot deliver that efficiency. The flow of passengers also depends on the divestiture station, where travelers place their belongings in trays for screening. If trays are delayed or poorly managed, queues grow and airports must add more staff and lanes to keep up.
Automated tray return systems (ATRS), also known as intelligent tray return systems, have become essential in addressing these challenges. Without automation, security operators must manually return trays from the redress area back to the divest stations and push filled trays toward the CT or x-ray machines. These manual steps create bottlenecks as people wait for trays or space to load their belongings.
Most ATRS on the market use a process called parallel divest. Passengers are positioned in multiple stations to divest belongings but still wait for security operators to move trays onto the conveyor. Although these systems and their inherent capabilities are an improvement over manual processes, there are efficiency gaps – mainly, the speed of each passenger in the divest stations, and the manual intervention by officers to keep trays moving.
Smarter tray return systems
New advances in ATRS will likely replace the parallel divest process. The three-stage divestment management approach leverages automated tray sequencing and infeed divest, and is poised to make these systems even more effective in accelerating efficiencies and throughput. Using sequence logic, trays are delivered to passengers through divest completion.
This system enables a passenger to divest two trays simultaneously by using two stations at the same time. The smarter sequencing process delivers trays to divest stations when they are open, then routes them to the scanner, reducing wait times, confusion and the manual handling of trays.
At one UK airport running parallel divest and also smart sequencing lanes, the smart lane delivered a 33% increase in passenger throughput. Staffing requirements to manage divestiture were reduced by 50%, and the airport also reported improved passenger experience and satisfaction using the new technology.
Looking ahead
As more airports adopt this next-generation ATRS capability, there will likely be shifts in operational processes at security checkpoints. Due to the higher efficiency and passenger throughput delivered by a smart sequencing ATRS, the number of lanes needed at the checkpoint can be less than with standard parallel divest systems, thus lowering capital expenditures and ongoing maintenance costs. And with fewer operators required to manage divestitures, airports can redeploy those valuable resources to other critical tasks.
With more than 32,000 security screening products deployed globally, Leidos is well positioned to drive technology advances and serve as an advocate across the spectrum of aviation security.
https://www.leidos.com/markets/aviation/security-detection/aviation-checkpoint/automated-tray-return
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Sequence logic
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