Article

Airlines, kiosks, and togetherness

New standards are pushing airline self-service check-in kiosks toward interoperability, with one kiosk serving multiple airlines. The only question is will all airlines want to participate.

June 25, 2002

On the surface, Qantas Airlines appeared to be joining the converted when it announced it would install self-service check-in kiosks this summer. But the Qantas implementation is anything but typical for an application that has been one of the most successful in the kiosk industry.

Instead, the leading Australian carrier will be taking a major step forward in the move toward standardization of kiosk software in the flight industry.

By July, Qantas will operate Common Use Self Service (CUSS) compliant kiosks at airports in Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, and Brisbane airports. The kiosks are manufactured by airline network services developer SITA, which has around 1,500 self-service kiosks deployed at 113 airports globally.

Developed over two years by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) CUSS management group -- composed of airports, airlines, and vendors -- CUSS version 1.0 will be officially released around October when the specifications are published. The IATA's CUSS technical and management groups are both scheduled to meet in New Orleans Oct. 14-16. The Greater Toronto Airport Authority and SITA will debut a mobile, wireless development of the CUSS standard at the end of June.

The idea behind CUSS is one of interoperability. The system allows different airlines to use the same kiosks, saving on hardware and allowing customers to check in at any kiosk. Qantas will initially use the system on a dedicated platform, but in the future it will be possible to use other airlines' applications on the system.

"In essence this is a community IT solution that shares applications, hardware, and network infrastructure to provide access to the latest technologies at the lowest cost to the industry," said Kevin Peterson, a product manager with SITA. "This is crucial as self service is becoming an extremely important and low-cost mechanism for airlines and airports in speeding passenger service and reducing costs."

The idea has not captured universal acceptance, however. Jeff Anderson, director of customer service technology for SITA client Alaska Airlines, is not so confident that CUSS will take off quickly.

"Only one airport of the 71 airports that we have kiosks in is pushing for CUSS kiosks," Anderson said.

All together Â… maybe

The Qantas deployment represents a major leap forward for the IATA's CUSS standard, a process that has been ongoing since the CUSS management group was created in November of 1999.

Alaska Airlines, which has 380 self-service check-in kiosks in service, is in no hurry to adopt the CUSS standard of interoperability because most of its kiosks are located at its ticket counters.

The group has met nearly a dozen times since to discuss technical standards and operating issues. The viability of interoperable airline self-service kiosks was proven during the first half of 2001, when British Airways and Swissair tested a line of interoperable kiosks, manufactured for the two airlines by IBM and Wincor Nixdorf, respectively.

"The advent of shared kiosks will allow us to offer this time-saving facility to more passengers at more airports," Peter Stanton, British Airways senior project manager and a CUSS supporter, said in July of 2001.

While the growth of CUSS has been slow and measured, Peterson expects the standard to take off as projects such as Qantas' quickly reach the deployment stage.

"While CUSS may still be in its infancy, the industry expects it will grow this year and take off next year as the standard becomes accepted," he said.

But for Alaska Airlines the CUSS standard is not that pressing for the simple reason that the majority of its kiosks are located at the airline's ticket counters, so branding and single use is a key part of the package.

Alaska Airlines first deployed a prototype kiosk in December, 1995, and now has 380 kiosks. Primarily used for check-in and issuing boarding passes, the kiosks have additional capabilities such as upgrades to first class and customer seat change.

In the early days Alaska experimented with location, placing the kiosks near the security checkpoint, in the gate areas, in the parking facilities and on the ticket counter.

"We found as soon as we placed it on the ticket counter usage quadrupled," Anderson said. "Customers are used to going there and there is the comfort factor, because there is a customer service agent behind the counter."

For all that, Alaska Airlines is still choosing to restructure its current application to become CUSS-compliant.

"One of the benefits of the re-architecture exercise is that we will be able to use the same core code that we use on our Web site, where customers can also check-in," Anderson said. "Other than that, we are really looking at internal enhancements at present -- making it faster and more reliable -- rather than adding functionality."

Checking in on kiosks

Created in 1949 by 11 airlines, SITA currently serves 1,800 customers throughout the airline industry and has 3,800 employees from 130 different countries. Interoperability is an important concept to SITA -- which provides global network services and IT infrastructure and applications to the air transport industry -- and has led the organization to call for open IT standards in the industry.

Peterson joined SITA from the Advanced Technology Unit at Northrop Gruman Corp., which was acquired by SITA in April, 2001. During his time in the industry kiosks have become commonplace at major U.S. and European airports and have reached a level of ubiquity.

Peterson is realistic about the role kiosks play, however, noting that some people just prefer check-in counters. But the blending of the two creates a win-win situation for all airline customers.

"Self-service isn't for everybody, but if you can accommodate a good portion of your customers, then that frees up agents and check-in counters for those customers that won't use the kiosks and improves the service they get," he said.

One group of customers that are keen on self-service check-in are those buying e-tickets. It is estimated that e-tickets save airlines from $4 in the U.S. domestic market to $8 in the international market compared to paper tickets. Moving customers to self-service will provide further cost savings, according to Peterson, who used Alaska Airlines as an example of how successful a program can be.

"I believe Alaska Airlines now have around 45 percent of e-ticket customers checking in on self-service kiosks," he said.