Gerald R. Ford International Airport (GRR) in Grand Rapids, Michigan opened its $135 million Terminal Enhancement Project on 26 August 2026, and the part that matters most to anyone working in RFID baggage handling sits below the check-in hall: a new Consolidated Baggage Inspection System that moves every checked bag in its own RFID-enabled tote.
The airport describes the CBIS as using Individual Carrier System (ICS) technology, with “RFID-enabled totes to transport checked luggage throughout the screening process, improving tracking, reliability and throughput.” Throughput rises from roughly 600 bags per hour on the outgoing system to nearly 1,000 bags per hour once the new one is fully operational. The project broke ground in April 2024 and expands the west end of the terminal.
A US first for ICS paired with self-service check-in
GRR says it is “the first airport in the United States to pair this technology with a self-service bag check process.” From 9 September 2026, passengers flying American Airlines, United Airlines and Frontier Airlines can check in at a kiosk, print and attach their own bag tag, then place the bag on a designated conveyor at an automated bag drop. Traditional agent-assisted check-in remains available, and a second phase in 2027 is expected to bring in Delta Air Lines, Allegiant Air, Southwest Airlines, Avelo Airlines and Sun Country Airlines, with additional carriers transitioning by the end of 2027.
“This is a transformational moment for the Ford International Airport and for West Michigan,” said Tory Richardson, President and CEO of the Gerald R. Ford International Airport Authority. Dan Koorndyk, Chair of the Airport Authority Board, said the project “reflects our commitment to delivering a world-class travel experience.”
Why per-tote identity is what makes unattended bag drop viable
Strip the agent out of the check-in transaction and something else has to own custody of the bag. At a staffed desk, a human is the fallback: they see the tag, they see the bag, and they fix the mismatch before it becomes a mishandling report. At an unattended drop point, the controls have to do that themselves, continuously, from the moment the bag leaves the passenger’s hand through TSA screening to the make-up carousel. Airport baggage tracking of that kind needs an identity the system can read reliably at every decision point, and in an ICS the tote is that identity.
The one bag per tote principle is the other half of it. On a conventional shared belt, bags travel nose to tail, gaps open and close, items rotate, and a printed tag can end up face down or buried under a strap. Miss enough reads and the system falls back to manual encode stations and human intervention. A tote is a known object with its tag in a known position and a known orientation, presented to the reader the same way every time, so the read is a property of the carrier rather than a gamble on how the bag happened to land.
In-tote screening adds to that. The bag lies flat and stable through the X-ray in a repeatable presentation, which is worth having for image quality and for keeping rescreen rates down. There is a maintenance argument too: the tote is a rugged reusable carrier that circulates for years, so its tag is a permanent asset rather than a disposable label, and the usual conveyor failure mode of straps, wheels and handles snagging on transfers largely goes away.
What has not been published
Neither the airport nor its baggage handling contractor has published a technical specification for the tote tags. There is no confirmed frequency band, air interface, tag model or read range in any of the material released, and readers should not assume one. As general industry context rather than a statement about this deployment, tote-based ICS installations typically read a tag fixed to the tote at each transfer, diverter and screening position, so the controls always know which carrier is where. That is a separate layer from the passenger-facing bag tag, where IATA Resolution 753 tracking obligations and the RP1740c bag tag work pushed the industry toward UHF. Tote identification is an internal asset tracking problem; the bag tag is an interline one, and neither implies the other at GRR.
The vendor and the wider programme
The baggage handling system contractor is BEUMER Group, whose CrisBag tote-based ICS was announced for the airport back in May 2024. BEUMER describes the platform as compact and modular, built on one bag per tote, with in-tote screening of hold baggage and what it calls total traceability through the process. It called GRR the first small-hub airport in the United States to deploy the technology. “Small-hub airports like Ford International can benefit from long-term savings and energy efficiency,” said David Delaney, BEUMER Vice President and General Manager, North American Airport Division. Richardson said at the time that “The expansion of our infrastructure is critical to fostering the growth of our vibrant region.”
Other project partners are The Christman Company as construction manager, Corgan as architect, VTC on design and project management, and Fishbeck as engineer. The work supports over 1,350 in-state jobs, including more than 850 direct construction jobs. It sits inside the airport’s ELEVATE capital programme, now above $600 million, funded by federal and state grants, municipal bonds and user fees with no local taxpayer dollars. ELEVATE also covers relocating the air traffic control tower, a federal inspection station for international flights, a Concourse A expansion completed in 2024 that added eight gates, and a Consolidated Rental Car Facility that opened in July 2026.
For passengers, the practical detail is that airline baggage fees, size and weight limits and check-in deadlines are unchanged, and airport and airline staff remain on hand for mobility devices, pets, oversized items and special baggage. The expected gains are shorter check-in queues, better baggage tracking and fewer routing errors, conveyor jams and instances of damage.
Read more at https://www.grr.org/news/ford-international-airport-celebrates-the-opening-of-the-terminal-enhancement-project
