Self-service gains traction in Asia Pacific airports
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The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has reported progress in the implementation of Fast Travel in the Asia-Pacific region.
Qantas Airways has achieved Platinum status for Fast Travel implementation, becoming the first airline in Asia-Pacific and the second in the world to achieve this. The Platinum status is achieved when Fast Travel compliant solutions are made available to at least 80% of an airline’s passengers.
Meanwhile Narita International Airport Corporation has engaged IATA to conduct a study on the implementation of Fast Travel at Tokyo’s Narita Airport.
“Given the expected traffic growth in the Asia-Pacific region, major Asian airports are under pressure to handle the anticipated traffic growth. Partnership between airlines and airports will be crucial to address this challenge,” said Hideharu Miyamoto, vice president corporate strategies & planning at Narita International Airport Corporation (NAA).
“IATA’s Fast Travel initiatives will bring more efficiency for airline operations, and improve the customer experience.
“From an airport perspective, we can make more efficient use of the airport’s facilities and improve the airport experience for travellers. Reducing the waiting time at the various queues also means that travellers can have more time to use the airport’s facilities and for shopping,” added Miyamoto.
The Fast Travel programme responds to passenger demand for a more seamless travel experience and more control through six time-saving, self-service initiatives: Self check-in and/or automatic check-in; Bags ready-to-go;Document check; Flight re-booking; Self-boarding; Bag recovery.
The industry target is to implement Fast Travel projects covering 27% of eligible passengers this year, rising to 80% by 2020. This appears to be a plausible objective given that 75% of passengers would prefer to check in online or automatically by receiving a text message or email, according to IATA’s Global passenger Survey 2014.
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