The Eugene Airport lobby is brighter and a lot less cluttered thanks to a recently completed $5 million upgrade.

Those bulky checked baggage screening machines that commandeered the lobby’s northeast corner for the past seven years are gone. They have been replaced with sleeker, faster models, which now are tucked behind the ticket counters in reconfigured back-office space.

“It gives us our lobby back,” Airport Director Tim Doll said.

The federal Transportation Security Administration provided a $3.2 million grant for the upgrade, and the remaining $1.8 million came from passenger facility charges, airport officials said. The airport charges $4.50 per passenger traveling through the airport.

Before the remodel, “it was hard for people to go back and forth in the lobby areas,” at peak travel times, such as Thanksgiving and Spring Break, Doll said.

Air travelers had to haul their luggage to the ticket counter, where an airline agent tagged it, then the traveler had to turn around and lug it through the crowd to the baggage screening machines. TSA agents screened the luggage, then airline agents carried it back behind the ticket counters.

The new technology will “streamline the baggage screening process while strengthening security,” said Don Wilson, TSA assistant federal security director for the Eugene and Redmond airports.

TSA has about 60 employees at the Eugene airport — down from about 65 in October, as the agency reconfigured its staffing needs for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, he said.

The TSA recently installed three explosives detection machines in the area behind the ticket counters. Each machine can screen more than 200 bags an hour, Wilson said. Eugene’s system is similar to those operating at the Portland, Redmond and Medford airports, and at other airports throughout the country, he said.

“Most major airports have them now,” Wilson said.

Now travelers at the Eugene Airport check luggage at the ticket counter. An airline agent places the luggage on a conveyor belt, which travels to the back room, where technology similar to medical CT scans screens the luggage. Unless something triggers further investigation by a TSA agent, the bags continue on a belt to an area where airlines’ workers load the baggage on carts to eventually load into planes.

The lobby itself also got a face lift, including new ticket counters, more self-check-in stations, and large wall-mounted video monitors, which eventually will be integrated into a new flight information display system.

With more flights and a larger number of airlines serving it, the Eugene Airport reported its third consecutive record year in 2013, with 863,523 passengers. Doll projects growth of 1 to 2 percent in 2014, for another record year.

The new baggage screening system is designed to keep up with demand, Doll said, adding that the airport has space for two more of the screening machines.

With the first phase of lobby renovations completed, Doll wants to start soon on the second phase — expanding the TSA security check point.

Doll said he hopes the project will go out for bid in a month or two and construction will begin this summer.

Phase three — adding another baggage belt and another set of restrooms to the baggage claim area — would follow soon after.

“We have so many flights and so many airlines, with one bag belt it’s hard to serve all the passengers,” Doll said.

The estimated cost of the next two projects is $12 million to $15 million, or about $6 million to $7.5 million each, he said.

Space is tight at the airport, which has just one available ticket counter and no offices available, Doll said.

If another airline shows interest, the airport will have to start adding to its northern end, he said.

Airport officials said they continue to work to add air service to San Jose for the business community, as well as service to Chicago’s O’Hare and Phoenix’s Sky Harbor airports, to increase access to those cities and destinations they connect to.

“We’re happy to modernize the terminal — to make it easier for passengers to get through the airport and enjoy their experience,” Doll said.

Follow Sherri on Twitter @sburimcdonald. Email sherri@registerguard.com.