Alstef Canada celebrates new improved BAGSORT BHS sortation software deployment at YUL Montréal-Trudeau International Airport

Alstef Canada has successfully deployed a new improved version of its BAGSORT – Sortation Allocation Control (SAC) software – at YUL Montréal-Trudeau International Airport in Montreal, Canada operated by ADM Aéroports de Montréal.

Alstef Canada designed, delivered, and installed the baggage handling system for the new transborder terminal at Montréal-Trudeau Airport and since 2009, has been contracted to operate, supervise, maintain, support, and improve the transborder baggage handling system inclusive of the Automatic Bag Drop (ABD) stations. During this time, Alstef Canada has improved the ITD & ITPC processes and provided BAGVIEW (SCADA) upgrades.

The latest BAGSORT SAC upgrade allows United States Customs Border Protection (US CBP) to perform pre-clearance of passengers on Canadian soil, which requires processing data related to baggage and passengers. The main deliverables of this project were to facilitate advanced routing logic, including airport-specific business rules, full integration with airline systems, BIWIS functionality including, weight, image capture, custom level 1 (with weight and imaging), custom level 2 (with pax and bags), bag management and US CBP interaction with automated bag recall. The solution also controls the Early Bag Storage system (EBS) comprised of 450 individual conveyors.

The system was thoroughly tested and validated prior to the deployment. “This is a major project where we successfully deployed our new version of BAGSORT for ADM – one of our long-standing, key customers,” said Paul Marty, Alstef Group IT Software Project Manager. The project involved the software development team in France and the Canadian local IT and operations team. “Teamwork was fundamental to ensure the knowledge transfer of the development team to the operations team and to guarantee a smooth roll-out” continues Paul. Alstef Canada system expert, Abdel Eddaoui, confirms “the trust and transparency of the various stakeholders involved in this project was as important as our ability to map all the data flows to the precision of the detailed specification. As we celebrate this major milestone, I would like to thank the entire team for their contribution to this project including the ADM validation team for maintaining best practices, and the dedication of the Alstef Canada team who led the test phase through to the successful commissioning of the solution”.

In January 2020, Glidepath Group was purchased by Alstef Group, the French leader in automated turnkey solutions for the baggage handling and intralogistics markets. From 1 January 2022, Alstef Canada Inc merged with Glidepath Systems Limited (Canadian resident) to form one entity representing Canada for the Alstef Group. “We are strongly committed to the Canadian market and are excited about the broader opportunities a united Alstef Group can offer our customers” states Steven Tanguy, Managing Director, Alstef Canada Inc.

Alstef Group has completed more than 150 projects throughout Canada including 15 major CATSA-funded checked-bag screening machine upgrades which required significant baggage system modifications. “We focus on long-term relationships,” says Steven. “We have completed multiple, repeat projects at many regional airports throughout Canada and have been present at all of the main hub airports including Toronto, Vancouver, and Montreal, since entering the market in the early 2000s”. Alstef Group maintains its commitment to the Canadian market through a solid market presence including its on-site operations and maintenance team of 25 staff based at YUL Montréal-Trudeau International Airport along with its sales and support offices in Toronto and Vancouver.