News

Sharing savings with kiosks at airports

A new initiative will establish standards for common self-service kiosk platforms, allowing airlines to share kiosks and save money.

February 20, 2003

Millions of passengers are now using self-service kiosks to check in at the airport. These reliable devices save time and manpower, empower passengers, and offer choice. Passengers can conduct transactions in their native languages, change seats and check bags -- all in less than a minute.

John Howes

Like any new technology, though, kiosks have also brought challenges for the industry. Airlines want to offer their product on the widest possible basis but cannot always justify the kiosk installation costs in every location they would like. Airports, meanwhile, are concerned about the real estate taken up by the installation of many different carriers' kiosks throughout the airport.

Shared Kiosks Are The Answer

Rather than cuss about the problem, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) has agreed on a set of standards to create "CUSS," or Common Use Self-Service kiosk platforms, that the airlines can share for all passengers. This expands the overall availability of kiosks to passengers, while reducing the cost burden to individual airlines. Airlines operating at an airport can share the same common-use kiosks, while continuing to offer individually branded self-service applications running on these kiosks.

By delivering the e-business application of flight check-in through shared kiosks, airlines are able to be even more flexible in responding to the dynamic needs of today's travelers.Because of its versatility, the CUSS kiosk can be located almost anywhere -- in parking areas, at hotel lobbies, and at curbside valet parking locations -- allowing passengers to check in before entering airport terminals. Frequent fliers will be able to bypass some of the long lines at counters, which in turn will drive out labor costs from behind the counter. CUSS kiosks could even alter the design of airports, changing the flow of passenger traffic and the way airlines and airports deploy their personnel.

The initial IATA standard for CUSS is now complete and will be published in the first quarter of 2003. There are two parts to the CUSS standard. One is the platform consisting of kiosk hardware and middleware, which manages the applications and devices and provides systems management data for the monitoring system. Mandatory devices for the kiosk are a card reader, computer and printer, though the standard is open enough to accommodate a variety of other third-party devices and peripherals. The second standard is the application software itself, which provides the customer interface. CUSS development testing is already underway by several airlines, and the first CUSS kiosks are now being deployed.

Adding Security To CUSS

One of the most interesting adjuncts to the CUSS standard is the work being done around security screening via biometrics. Biometric technologies are the foundation of an extensive array of highly secure identification and personal verification solutions. The most popular for kiosks are facial recognition, hand geometry, fingerprint, and iris scanning. Biometric-based solutions built into the kiosks will be able to provide for confidential financial transactions and personal data privacy. The technology, envisioned first for international travel, will free customs officers to focus their energies on identifying and dealing with high-risk situations. It will reward the low risk traveler with a fast and efficient method for passing through customs.

While it is still early for this technology to be adopted to CUSS kiosks, several promising security screening self-service pilot projects are underway throughout the world.

• In 2003 the Canada Customs and Revenue Agency will be installing kiosks based on iris-recognition in eight International Airports within Canada, starting with Vancouver International and Toronto airports. This system identifies and verifies travelers by cross referencing a real-time iris scan with the travelers' pre-registered iris data, which is stored on an encrypted smart card. The kiosks will be located in the pre-passenger inspection line in the customs hall. Frequent travelers will apply and pay for the privilege of becoming expedited passengers.
• Improving border security as well as passenger convenience are the objectives of the Privium program, launched at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport in October of 2001. Using iris-recognition, the system has proven its ability to process four-to-five people per minute and provide highly reliable, machine-made decisions on identity. In the first three months of the program alone, over 30,000 transactions took place without any reported inaccuracies.

No Single Touchpoint

Of course, the ability to process passengers with a high level of security requires the integration of both technology and process. Nobody believes that a single self-service kiosk will provide authoritative security screening. In the airport of the future, there will clearly be more than one touchpoint used for security screening. Kiosks will work in concert with secure databases and human intervention, providing a screening net that helps expedite passenger processing in a merger of convenience and security.

John Howes is the Self-Service Solutions Manager, IBMTravel & Transportation Industry Group. He can be reached at the following email address: john_howes@uk.ibm.com

IBM helped develop the first common use kiosks sponsored by an airport -- deployed at Vancouver International Airport in the Fall of 2002.