T3 will feature latest self check-in technology

New technology is enabling passengers to take more control of the airport check-in process in the new T3 terminal. While at new facilities in Singapore Changi´s Terminal 3, customer self-service is the backbone on which the architecture depends, elsewhere, new technologies form the core of ways to repackage existing terminals in a different way. Much of the demand for more self-service stems from the passenger´s desire for more control over the journey, to exercise power in a process that often leaves the customer, the purported centre of the process, feeling marginal. Passengers in T3 expect more options to control their travel experience, and self-service is part of their expectation of full service. The empowerment that people get from new technology has benefits for airlines.

Common-use self-service check-in (CUSS) kiosks are behind the ability of airports such as Las Vegas McCarran to handle as many as four million passengers a month. The CUSS approach is ideally suited for an airport that is not dominated by a single carrier. The technical complexities of a CUSS system are not always understood, and it is easy to underestimate the need for technical support. It is often the traditional technology of the printer that causes problems rather than the hi-tech IT functions, he explains. McCarran owns and operates the kiosks, which is the usual arrangement in CUSS situations, says Payne. It also maintains them and has a team of more than a dozen technical staff on hand almost 24 hours a day. It has developed a remote solution that resets a failed kiosk from a central location without making the technician go to the machine. That is great advantage for Las Vegas which, in addition to the 100 airport kiosks, has devices in garages and nearby hotels. He says that common-use passenger-facing systems such as CUSS offer a platform that will meld easily into the next generation, dubbed CUPPS, or common-use passenger processing systems. CUPPS will integrate check-in with behind-the-scenes processes for all stages of passenger handling.

Updated On: 08.01.10