This is what happens to your suitcase after you check in

Your suitcase makes a long conveyor belt journey before ending up on the plane

Mollie Goodfellow
Monday 10 August 2015 16:23 BST
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The video shows one suitcases journey from check-in to plane
The video shows one suitcases journey from check-in to plane

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Have you ever wondered what happens to your luggage once you check it in at the airport and rush through to security?

Amsterdam Schiphol airport has granted us a peek at what goes on behind the scenes.

After it goes on the conveyor belt and down through to the internal sorting office, your luggage will probably whizz along the moving belt for a while, before being picked up by robotic arms.

After luggage is checked in, it goes through to the conveyors seen in the video. If your flight is due imminently, cases are taken to a platform and brought to the plane.

If there’s still a short while to go before your flight, luggage will be gathered on a per plane basis and taken to the flight when ready. If you’re an eager beaver, and your flight has more than 60 minutes to go, then any baggage is taken to a ‘suitcase hotel’, where it waits before being ready to be gathered for the flight.

It looks way more laid back and easy than going through the process of security, the departure lounge, rushing to your gate and waiting to board.

At the end of the process your bag, hopefully still intact, is placed gently onto a baggage car to be taken out and put into the plane’s baggage hold.

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