Posted on: Tuesday, December 3, 2002

Automated check-in saves air travelers time

By James Pilcher
Cincinnati Enquirer

Looking for a faster way to get through airports during the busy holiday season?

Check out the self-service computer kiosks showing up in more and more airports nationwide, say frequent business travelers such as Cincinnati-area salesman Barry Burgoyne.

"They've got me with the technology, that's for sure," Burgoyne said after spending less than a minute to check in and print a boarding pass from a kiosk at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport. "I don't know if it actually is any quicker, but it seems to be. And that makes all the difference in the world to me."

According to airline officials, automation benefits not only travelers tired of waiting in line but also the cash-strapped airlines looking to improve customer service while reducing head count and employee costs.

"This has been a huge win-win," said Rob Maruster, Delta Air Lines' director of airport strategy and services. "It gives our employees more time to spend with the passengers who need it, and gives our passengers control over their own transactions and speeds everything up."

Airlines have upped their technology offerings in the past year. Delta, for example, has deployed 430 self-service kiosks at 80 airports across the nation.

Each station can handle three passengers at a time with an interactive touch screen that allows a passenger to do anything from use frequent-flier miles to upgrade to first class to make a seat change to print a boarding pass. An airline employee always is on hand to answer questions and check in luggage.

Maruster said more than 5.5 million passengers have used the kiosks this year through October.

Continental Airlines, which has 672 kiosks nationally, says 70 percent of all of its customers use self-service check-in.

"We've seen a threefold benefit in terms of better customer service, productivity and utilization of space from what we spent on the technology," said Scott O'Leary, manager of eService programs for Continental, the first domestic airline to install kiosks in 1996. "And we have people getting through in as little as 15 seconds."

Travelers say the ability to bypass long ticket lines reduces stress at their airport but doesn't mean they can arrive at the airport later for flights because it's impossible to predict how long it will take to get through security.

"I was really reluctant at first to use them, but now I don't know what I'd do without them," said Michael Heffner, a New York auction house owner, who flies two or three times a month. "They make it faster even in LaGuardia in New York. The lines at customer service there are always horrible, but with these machines, I can walk right through."