ekipa - ekipa - Baden Airpark

Context

Baden-Airpark GmbH operates Karlsruhe/Baden-Baden Airport (FKB) in Rheinmünster, Baden-Württemberg. The airport handles around 100 flights per week in the winter schedule and around 160 in the summer schedule. Most of them are operated by low-cost carriers; the largest airline accounts for roughly 80% of the flights.

Each airline has its own cabin baggage rules. In principle, every passenger may bring one small personal item (e.g. a backpack), and passengers who book a priority fare may additionally bring a trolley of up to 10 kg. Permitted dimensions differ by airline and fare. For example, the permitted trolley width is 20 cm at the main airline and 23 cm at smaller airlines. At the gate, only the dimensions (and number of items) are currently checked; weight is not. Airline baggage sizers, in which passengers can check their bags, are available landside at check-in and at every gate.

Since summer 2025 the airport has been checking cabin baggage on behalf of the airlines. Excess baggage fees are paid directly to the airline in its own system (credit card, PayPal, Apple Pay, Google Pay); typical fees range between 60 and 75 EUR per case.

The terminal is currently being rebuilt. The new passenger flow looks like this:

Passengers scan their (mostly mobile) boarding pass at an electronic gate to enter the security area.
They then pass a short corridor before entering the new security lanes (new screening technology goes into operation in January 2027).
After security, passengers pass a small duty-free shop and a central baggage check counter, which opened in September 2026.
From the end of 2026, every departing passenger will pass through this corridor and the central counter.
The goal is to check cabin baggage at this central point instead of at the gate, but only for passengers where the baggage is likely not to comply, since staff cannot check thousands of passengers per day manually.

View the terminal floor plan to see the passenger flow from boarding pass control through the security lanes to the central baggage check counter. Sensors may only be placed before or after the security checkpoint.

Problem Definition

Today, excess cabin baggage is identified manually at the boarding gate. The core issues are:

Late detection under time pressure: Checks happen during boarding, with airline turnaround pressure and limited space. Boarding times vary considerably from flight to flight, depending on how many discussions occur.
Conflicts at the gate: Passengers frequently dispute the measurement ("it's only one centimetre"), have no means of payment at hand or face language barriers. This creates stressful situations for the passenger handling staff.
Inconsistent and resource-heavy checks: Which passengers are checked depends on staff experience and flight profile (some routes have significantly more cases than others), so more staff are deployed on certain flights and the strictness of checks varies.
Manual selection only: Although baggage sizers are available at check-in and at every gate, whether a bag is checked depends on staff selecting passengers manually at the gate. There is no automated way to identify likely cases early and to show passengers the measured deviation.

The objective is not to automate payment or replace airline systems, but to provide staff with a reliable, objective pre-selection of likely cases early in the passenger flow.