A medium-sized airport (e.g. a busy regional hub or small international airport) has more structure. It might have multiple airlines and several flights each hour. Typically, there is a small automated baggage system: conveyors connect check-in zones to a sorting area and to the gate loading area. Bags might enter a make-up area where they are manually or semi-automatically sorted into tubs for each flight. The airport may still rely on ground staff to load/unload planes, but there might be conveyor belt loaders and a dedicated sort office.
Process-wise, medium airports balance automation and handwork. For instance, an arriving bag is unloaded by handlers, placed on a belt, scanned, and routed to the correct arrival carousel. For transfers, bags are sent back to a transfer desk. Staff roles become more specialized: you’ll often find distinct “sortation supervisors” or “transfer agents” rather than one person doing multiple jobs. Because volumes are higher than small airports, SLAs and KPIs (like 95% delivery within 15 minutes) are more formalized. These airports may use some tracking (even if only barcodes) to confirm bags on/off flights. In general, medium airports extend the small-airport model by adding more equipment and staff layers, but without the full robotics of a major hub.
