Zurich/Singapore, March 2, 2009 — Swissport International and SITA, an aviation IT specialist, announced the deployment of the world’s first passenger bag drop solution, which allows a single counter to be used to service passengers from several airlines in the same queue: a real innovation for a smarter process flow.
Ten such counters have been created and successfully tested at Zurich Airport to the benefit of some 10 airlines — including most of the Star Alliance — whose host departure control systems are recognized by SITA’s new software solution known as PassengerBagdrop which eliminates a potential bottleneck in the passenger management process.
Anita Elste, manager product and services for Star Alliance, said: “We have paid a number of site visits to Zurich to watch PassengerBagdrop in action. Multi-airline or common-use bag drop counters are much more efficient and the average time passengers spend being processed has dropped to just under 30 seconds. Handling agents access a single standard user interface for all supported airlines.”
PassengerBagdrop also supports passengers who have already checked in online but, for whatever reason, do not have a boarding pass as it can easily reprint the original boarding pass.
Rico Barandun, head of Swissport’s e-Services, said: “Swissport and SITA have just celebrated the fact that two million passengers have now used our web and kiosk check-in solutions. Swissport customers will appreciate the significance of this latest development as it will lower costs for airline customers and improve passenger throughput without increasing check-in space. We are particularly pleased to deploy it for the first time in such a prestigious location as Zurich airport.”
Bruno Frentzel, SITA senior vice president for applications solutions, said: “This is a real innovation for a smarter process flow at airports. PassengerBagdrop is an important development in SITA’s baggage portfolio. We intend to innovate further in the near future with PassengerBagdrop Off-Airport. This will be specifically designed for logistics companies to allow them to provide departing airline passengers with basic flight check-in and a secured baggage pick-up from off-airport locations such as hotels.”
