Technology supplier SITA and baggage handling system specialist BCS Group have unveiled a self-service baggage solution, offering the convenience of unassisted bag tagging and drop off .
The innovation is timely, following SITA’s research earlier this year, which revealed that most of the participants would like to see the self-service concept to be expanded to include tagging of their luggage (see news). Ilya Gutlin, SITA's vice-president, Airport Solutions, observed: “Passengers have made their views quite clear: they want to use more self-service. Our survey shows that 70 percent of travellers would tag their own bag if they could."
That was the reason that SITA had worked with BCS Group to deliver "the missing links in unassisted bag drop and true end-to-end self-service solutions", he said.
For nearly 10 years, the two companies have been conducting trials on various Australian baggage handling system integration projects and the first version of this end-to-end self-service is planned at an Australian airport and will be rolled out around mid-2011.
Once the service is in place, passengers check-in at a kiosk where bag tags are also printed for self tagging. Then, they proceed to a self-service bag drop area where the bag tags are scanned and reconciled with the boarding pass. The bag is weighed, measured and dispatched for the flight without the need for agent intervention.
For more on SITA, visit www.sita.aero
Margie T Logarta
