ACSA speeds up

Johannesburg, 17 Jan 2007

The Airports Company of SA (ACSA) will embark on the process of developing online check-in capabilities this year.

The company, which this week launched do-it-yourself check-in kiosks at four major airports, also wants to implement self-service boarding facilities in the future.

Theunis Chamberlain, ACSA's manager of IT and telecoms, says online check-in facilities - most likely to be used by business people - are subject to stringent rules.

The Civil Aviation Authority must first allow the country permission to implement these facilities and each airline must develop its software in accordance with international standards.

This year, says Chamberlain, ACSA will embark on developing a common operational procedure in conjunction with several large local and international carriers, who have expressed interest in the concept.

While these facilities are already commonly used by international carriers offshore, SA will be able to leapfrog other countries and bring out a common platform, based on the system already in place at local check-in counters.

However, there are serious security implications for such a move, which will require ACSA to invest in hardware to protect against unauthorised duplications of home-printed boarding passes. Chamberlain says this is already under investigation.

Allowing passengers to 'self board' is also a future possibility, says Chamberlain. While currently too costly due to the newness of the technology, ACSA has reserved space at three gates in the building that will service the new Airbus.

Help yourself

ACSA's future technological forays will be built on the back of its launch, this week, of self-service check-in kiosks at the four major local airports.

Chamberlain says use of the Flightcheck kiosks reduces check-in time at the counter from a few minutes to under a minute.

The company has rolled out 36 do-it-yourself kiosks with plans to add an additional 72 in the next few months and almost 50 more in the next few years.

Going "live" on the do-it-yourself kiosks today are South African Airways (SAA), SA Express and Airlink.

SAA has rolled out on 10 kiosks in the domestic terminal, and KLM and Kenya Airways use terminals in the international building. Chamberlain says the Kenyan company is seeing 40% of its check-ins move through the kiosks as staff steer passengers towards their use.

Since 2003, ACSA has been implementing a common-use platform that allows any airline to utilise any check-in counter. This platform, which is common across all the four major local airports, made it possible to introduce the self-service check-in kiosks.

Simpler, better, faster

Chamberlain says roll-out of the terminals will continue as demand picks up. Kiosks in Cape Town's domestic terminal will be installed once the new building is complete, in time for the soccer World Cup.

The company has completed installation in both terminals at OR Tambo, Durban and Port Elizabeth airports.

OR Tambo serves 50 airlines with 104 international and 75 domestic check-in counters. With space at a premium, the company saved on construction costs for the extra 36 check-in counters that the kiosks have replaced.

The International Air Transport Association, the industry's global trade organisation, developed the standard for the kiosks, while airlines are individually responsible for developing their own software.

SITA - an airline-owned IT company present in 263 countries - supplied the kiosks and also tests each airline's software package to ensure it complies with international standards and will not cause conflicts.

ACSA is also looking at a common-use bag-drop facility, negating the need for travellers to queue to drop off luggage. While SAA limits use of the kiosks to passengers without hand luggage, this is impossible in the international terminal. As a result, airlines using the facility provide bag-drops, which may soon take up too much space.

Another development in the pipeline is allowing their use to be extended to passengers travelling to the US. However, because of the stringent security measures applied to all passengers travelling to the States, a solution to simplify the vast amount of text that must be provided is yet to be found.