United Axes Troubled Denver Baggage System -- 10 Years Too Late
from the took-'em-long-enough dept
theodp writes "More than ten years after boasting that it would simplify Denver's troubled baggage project, United Air Lines is throwing in the towel on the $230 million computerized baggage system. The system has never been able to process luggage from flights arriving at the airport." For those who remember these kinds of things, the baggage automation system was a big part of why the Denver airport delayed its opening by over a year -- which was big news at the time. The fact that it took them this long to admit the system failed is impressive. Of course, again, it doesn't seem like the contractors who built the actual system received any punishment at all for building a multi-million dollar system that never actually worked.
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Hell Yeah
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On the problem when vendors/consultants get off free for a failed system, that often comes down to proper project planning and contracts. If you bid a 9-figure project without establishing clear deliverables, or pay the contractor despite failure, and/or won't sue/arbitrate to recover incremental payments from such a failure... the originator of the bid is responsible for that failure.
Spending another $340 million to delay opening a year to fix a failed system, well that's mind-blowing foolishness. No wonder airlines keep going bankrupt if that is how they are managed.
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History
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Failed?
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