I like what 9W / IT do in India - checkin agents roam the terminal with handheld PDAs and a small boarding pass printer strapped to their hip
If you just carry hand baggage, you can check in with these guys. If you want to check bags, you can just checkin with them and drop your bags off at a baggage drop counter so they can be tagged. > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf > Of Gautam John > Sent: Tuesday, June 17, 2008 9:25 PM > To: [email protected] > Subject: [silk] Airport Check-In Design > > Article location:http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/123/hustle-and- > flow.html > > February 15, 2008 > > Tags: Innovation, Technology, Design, Work/Life > > Hustle & Flow > By Dave Demerjian > > It's Wednesday morning at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, and > the United Airlines check-in area is a mob scene. Passengers queue up > in a line that runs the length of the counter and doubles back. > Customers waiting for agents block the self-serve kiosks. Finished > passengers must push through the crowd again. Average check-in time: > 25 to 30 minutes. > > Down the hall at Alaska Airlines, employees roam a spacious hall, > directing customers toward kiosks. Lines aren't more than three deep, > and travelers are on their way to security in eight minutes or less. > One woman pauses, looking confused, and another turns and says, "It's > this new check-in thing. Don't worry, it's really fast." > > Moving customers from frustration to relief--in a fraction of the > time--has been at the root of Alaska Airlines' Airport of the Future > project. The carrier has spent more than a decade designing a better > way to get customers through airport check-in, debuting the first > iteration in its Anchorage terminal in 2004. Last October, the $3.3 > billion carrier began rolling out its redesign in Seattle, where > Alaska and its sister airline, Horizon, have almost 50% market share. > The project, to be completed in May, has already reduced wait times > and increased agent productivity. "People come to the airport > expecting to stand in line," says Ed White, Alaska's VP of corporate > real estate, who ran the project. "It's an indictment of our > industry." > > Alaska's embrace of the future came out of necessity. By the > mid-1990s, it was running out of space to handle its Seattle > passengers. "If you came here on a busy day, it was jammed," White > says. A new terminal, though, would have cost around $500 million. > Alaska tried self-serve kiosks, but technology alone wasn't the > answer. Kiosks were pushed against the ticket counter, which only > further stagnated the flow of passengers. > > White assembled a team of employees from across the company to design > a better system. It visited theme parks, hospitals, and retailers to > see what it could learn. It found less confusion and shorter waits at > places where employees were available to direct customers. "Disneyland > is great at this," says Jeff Anderson, a member of White's skunk > works. "They have their people in all the right places." > > The team began brainstorming lobby ideas. At a Seattle warehouse, it > built mock-ups, using cardboard boxes for podiums, kiosks, and belts. > It tested a curved design, one resembling a fishbone, and one with > counters placed at 90-degree angles to each other. It built a small > prototype in Anchorage to test systems with real passengers and Alaska > employees. The resulting minor changes, such as moving the button that > sends a bag down the conveyor belt, "increased agents' efficiency and > prevented them from straining themselves," says Gordon Edberg, a > principal at ECH Architecture who helped implement the adjustments. > > The Seattle design begins with a deep lobby where 50 kiosks are pushed > to the front and concentrated in banks. "You need to cluster kiosks in > the 'decision zones' where passengers decide what to do within 15 > seconds," says airline technology expert Kevin Peterson. Alaska placed > "lobby coordinators" out front, à la Disneyland, to help educate > travelers. The 56 bag-drop stations are further back and arranged so > that passengers can see security. > > The results? During my two hours of observation in Seattle, an Alaska > agent processed 46 passengers, while her counterpart at United managed > just 22. United's agents lose precious time hauling bags and walking > the length of the ticket counter to reach customers. Alaska agents > stand at a station with belts on each side, assisting one passenger > while a second traveler places luggage on the free belt. With just a > slight turn, the agent can assist the next customer. "We considered > having three belts," White says. "But then the agent has to take a > step. That's wasted time." > > The new design will create significant cost savings. Seventy-three > percent of Alaska's Anchorage passengers now check in using kiosks or > the Web, compared with just 50% across the airline industry. Forrester > Research estimates that it costs airlines $3.02 to process a passenger > using an agent but only between 14 and 32 cents for self-service. > Alaska, then, is likely to save almost $8 million a year on the > Seattle terminal if it converts customers the way it has in Anchorage. > And the makeover cost just $28 million. "This design will take us to > 2017, at least," White says. > > The Seattle makeover cost $28 million, a far cry from a new $500 > million terminal. > > Alaska plans to roll out its Airport of the Future design in Portland, > Oregon; San Francisco; and Oakland, California. And the new system is > already being eyed by competitors: Elements can be seen in Delta > Airlines' renovated Atlanta check-in area. "Passengers see where > they're going," says John Murphy of Corgan Associates, an architect > who worked on the Atlanta terminal. "It's intuitive." At London > Heathrow's Terminal 5, scheduled to open this month, British Airways > is installing an even larger version of an Alaska-style system, with > 96 kiosks and 96 bag-drop stations. White says he doesn't mind the > copycats. "Our patents were about recognizing our employees more than > protecting intellectual property," he says. "We're happy to see others > embracing what we developed." > > > -- > Please read our new blog at: > http://blog.prathambooks.org/
