News

Automated kiosks landing at India airports

July 14, 2016

The Airports Authority of India has announced that it will deploy automated kiosks to replace check-in counters at the Chennai airport.

Passengers will be able to use the kiosks to select a seat, drop off bags and get boarding cards simply by typing their confirmation number into the keypad. The kiosks even provide tags for passengers to afix to their luggage before drop-off, according to a report by The Times of India.

The authority installed the kiosks in Mumbai airports in April, and is looking to deploy more of the devices at airports around the country in order to reduce waiting lines and increase efficiency, the report said.

"Initially, trained staff will be deployed to assist passengers to go through the process, because travelers in Chennai do not seem to be comfortable using kiosks," airport director Deepak Shastri told The Times.

However, not everyone is on board with the deployment.

"The move to install such machines in large scale may not be advisable for Chennai airport because baggage scanning machines already occupy a lot of prime space in the departure hall of the domestic terminal," said D. Sudhakara Reddy, national president of the Air Passenger Association of India, said in the report. "The new machines will take up more space and make the place chaotic during busy hours."