usatoday24
Now that that moment of the year is approaching where millions of travelers prepare to face the flights that will take them to the long -awaited holidays, an airport room is also ready for the arrival of one of those evils assumed as part of the package: the lost or lost suitcases. Although there is an exception. In Japan an airport has erected as the most efficient of the planet. They have been three decades Without losing luggage.
His problem is another, and is underground.
30 years without a complaint. As we said, in a sector where loss is almost evil assumed by travelers, the Kansai International Airportin Japan, it offers an amazing anomaly: in its three decades of operationhas never lost a suitcase, a baby cart, a couple of skis or a single bag. The feat, which its employees describe with modesty as a simple consequence of following the rules, has made Kansai a reference of silent efficiency.
Serving the regions of Osaka and Kyoto, and with 30 million passengers International a year, its record cannot be attributed to a low volume of traffic. What distinguishes it is meticulous attention to detail: from aligning the handles of the suitcases to facilitate their collection until they personally deliver fragile or bulky objects directly in the hands of the passenger.
Operational discipline. Had in Japan Times Tsuyoshi Habuta, supervisor of one of the luggage manipulation companies in Kansai, which behind there is no special training or secret systems. According to him, merit lies in Comply with established processes And act carefully: each suitcase is treated as something valuable, not only for its content, but for what it represents for the passenger.
Your team manages some 3,000 pieces a dayand the manipulation procedure of is a ballet Synchronized revisions and cross controls. Each piece is counted not only at the time of check-in, but also during and after the flight. The workers inspect that the number of packaged packages coincide exactly with those downloaded, both in the airplane warehouse and in the safety control rooms. If something does not block, the search begins immediately.
The rule of the quarter hour. Plus: There is a tacit rule. Deliver all luggage in the collection zone in less than fifteen minutes From landing is a priority. This system is what has made the airport a world reference of efficiency, being awarded eight times with international awards for its excellence in the delivery of luggage.
Airport Aerial View
Omotenashi philosophy. Behind this impeccable history is also the Japanese concept of omotenashior hospitality as art. According to testimonies of the workers themselves collected by NPRcommitment is not only with logistics efficiency, but with the happiness of the passenger.
For them, excellence is not an objective achieved but a constant improvement, fueled by the humility of learning every day and the responsibility of representing Japanese quality to the world. This collective attitude generates an organizational culture where The error is not allowednot for fear of punishment, but for professional pride.
Wonder of engineering. The airport, opened in 1994, is built entirely About an artificial island In Osaka Bay and remains one of the infrastructure projects more ambitious and expensive Never performed. Conceived to relieve the saturation of the Osaka airport, Kansai has evolved to become the third busiest airport from Japan. Its initial construction cost around 14,000 million dollars, but with expansions and adjustments it has reached an estimated value of 20,000 million in 2008figure that, adjusted to current inflation, could double.
Endowed with characteristics such as flexible asphalt tracks capable of resisting earthquakes and a high structure on 900 hydraulic cats that allow leveling the terminal as the ground sits, the airport has even resisted the devastating Kobe earthquake 1995 without compromising its operation.
Osaka Bay Marine bed
The problem: it sinks. It We count a while ago. Despite all his technological advances, Kansai faces a persistent and increasingly worrying threat: It is sinking. Since its inauguration, the airport has already descended about 11.5 meters And it is expected that another additional four meters could descend before 2056, approaching dangerously to the sea level.
This situation is due to the fact that it was built on land earned to the sea, a highly compressible alluvial clay base that, under the weight of the artificial island, releases water and contracts, causing the progressive sinking of the soil. Although engineers have tried to accelerate land consolidation through “sand drains” (deep holes stuffed with sand to evacuate moisture), the settlement was not completed before starting construction, and the effects continue to accumulate over time.
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Fight against the sea. In 2018, a powerful typhoon flooded one of the slopesconfirming that the problem is not theoretical or distant. In response, the containment dike rose in 2.7 meters To prevent future floods, but experts agree that these measures are palliative and will not be enough in the long term without a large -scale intervention.
Yes, the airport is designed to adjust structurally and adapt to the movements of the land, but the geological environment itself (that species of “wet sponge” of loose clay) represents a continuous and silent threat. Every centimeter that descends more compromises its future viability, and although for now it remains an example of advanced engineering, the countdown to its physical obsolescence has already begun.
Monument with expiration date. In summary, Kansai is a fascinating paradox: a symbol of what human engineering can achieve and a reminder of the limits that imposes nature. While continuing to operate effectively recognized worldwide (With its unmatched record of delivery of luggage without losses), its future survival asshole a complex equation between technology, resources and political decisions.
Without large -scale structural solutions, the airport that once challenged the sea could slowly succumb to it, transforming into a submerged relic of human ambition. For 30 years it has not lost a single suitcase, the doubt is whether to repeat that efficiency the same number of years.
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Xataka
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Miguel Jorge
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