Come and visit us at Check-In'09

Ultra Electronics Airport Systems is exhibiting and speaking at this key annual industry event.

Visit the Check-In'09 website here.

Check-In publishes key article on "Paperless Flying":

Mobile technologies are revolutionizing airlines’ check-in processes, expanding their efficiencies and possibilities while improving customer services. With the mobile era, today’s traveler can check in from the comfort of a hotel room and a cup of coffee, checking flight status on the way to the airport, dropping luggage at a curbside and going straight to the gate with no need of a boarding pass.

Delta Air Lines and the TSA (Transportation Security Administration) are in partnership since June to start a pilot of NCR Corporation’s mobile phone check in solution at New York’s LGA (LaGuardia Airport). The service will be aimed at domestic flights from the airport but Delta is in talks with NCR to make the program available at other airports before the end of the year.

With a simple concept but clear benefits, the pilot focuses on the use of mobile devices with web access. Passengers will be able to check-in for flights departing within a day (24 hours) and get a 2D bar code. Once the travelers are at the airport, they should proceed to a security checkpoint where the bar code received via their mobile phones will be scanned by the TSA and then again while boarding.

Building up on convenience is paramount since, when it comes to modern air travel, costs are always on the rise and this forces carriers to seek out new tools to save money as well as time. Adding mobility to self-servicing lightens carriers’ burdens of high prices and long security queues by giving customers the choice to check-in from anywhere in the world.

This new mobile check-in trend is shaping up to spread very quickly far beyond the departure gates of LaGuardia and should not be restricted just to airline check-ins. The pilot program is flagship not just for the future of mobile data services but also other forms of checking-in such as that at hotels, car rentals or even movie rentals from a terminal kiosk. The possibilities are endless.

This initiative of paperless travel and 2D bar coding is in accordance with the ‘Simplify the Business’ plan incentivized by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) that is benefitting not just carriers but airports and travelers as it believes in minimizing expenses and improving the travel experience of customers with common use passenger processing. The goal is to cut on obstacles and queues of modern traveling, enhancing mobile functionality provides many advantages which can only benefit returns for all the business in the industry.

by Ross Falconer

Editor, Check-In Magazine