ST. CROIX — Travelers departing from the Henry E. Rohlsen Airport can once again drop off their bags at the check-in counters now that the temperamental luggage belt that has had repeated breakdowns for months got repaired over the weekend.
“We’re glad that it’s up and running,” Carlton Dowe, Virgin Islands Port Authority executive director, said. “We apologize again to the public for the inconvenience.”
The Port Authority hired technicians from Miami to repair the belt, which was experiencing electrical glitches due to a programming malfunction, according to Dowe.
“They indicated that the computer systems and so forth; they had problems with it,” he said. “It had to be programmed again.”
Dowe attributed the electrical issues that disrupted the operation of the luggage belt to the periodic power outages at the VI Water and Power Authority. He said the airport’s generators are even feeling the effects.
“These things were not built to consistently be getting these surges off, on, off, on all the time,” he said.
The Port Authority’s staff previously made repairs to the luggage belt on multiple occasions.
READ MORE: (From March 5) “UPDATE: VIPA temporarily fixes broken luggage belt at departure in STX airport while sourcing parts.”
“Our staff has been at it for a long time and trying to keep these things up and running, but it’s really very taxing at this point,” Dowe said. “But we see light at the end of the tunnel, and we're just glad that it’s up and running, and we don’t have the inconvenience of the public at this time.”
Other repairs related to a bearing system were also completed over the weekend on the luggage belt in addition to the electrical components, Dowe said. He said VIPA has already ordered some backup parts to be prepared to immediately make repairs in the event of another breakdown.
“It’s working now, but we're bringing in some additional redundancy in terms of those bearings and so forth,” he said.
The off-island technicians got the luggage belt operating on Saturday, but it was not used at that time out of an abundance of caution to ensure it was properly working, Dowe said.
Travelers who arrived at the airport Saturday afternoon transported their checked luggage through U.S. Customs and Border Protection security screening before dropping it off ahead of the Transportation Security Administration checkpoint to be placed on the airplane.
The luggage belt was fully operational on Sunday.
Cornelius Lawrence, a St. Croix resident, escorted his daughter, Jannica Lawrence, through the check-in process Sunday as she flew to Rhode Island, where she is stationed in the U.S. Navy. He said checking her luggage and placing it on the belt prior to entering CBP security screening made the process “much easier,” adding that he was glad to see the belt working.
“The last time I traveled in February it was out, and we had to pull our luggage inside,” he said. “And it was mind bothering.”
Dowe said equipment as old as the 30-year-old luggage belt will give VIPA trouble from time to time.
“We are optimistic at the Authority though,” he said, noting Port Authority’s public-private partnership project to modernize and enhance the Rohlsen airport and the Cyril E. King Airport on St. Thomas. He said VIPA’s P3 partners were on the ground Monday, estimating construction will begin at both airports by the third quarter of 2025.
“We're looking as to what we’re going to do ultimately for both airports, and that’s moving rapidly,” he said. “We expect by the end of this year, that we’ll be able to have the whole deal consummated.”
