Airlines set up kiosks to save money in times of slowdown

New Delhi: Self-service kiosks (SSKs) seem to be the flavour of slowdown among domestic carriers. Though Air India and Jet Airways are the only Indian carriers using SSKs, soon Kingfisher too will join the club with its ‘Red Cube’ self-service ticketing and check-in kiosks “in non-traditional service environment, such as malls, hotels and commercial buildings”, says Kingfisher Airlines marketing head Vikram Malhotra. With SSKs, airlines save on processing time from the average 4-6 minutes for normal check-in to about 60 seconds per passenger, say analysts. Besides, it considerably lowers groundhandling costs for a carrier.
Though travel automation company, Bird Group, manufactures and sets up kiosks across Indian airports for Air India, other airlines are fast upping the ante with their private vendors. Jet Airways, for instance, has deployed it across seven metro airports and is raring to go into “every city” with the kiosk. “We’ve independently developed the kiosks with our party vendors and it makes sense to develop them in India (rather than importing them) since they cost 40% lesser here,” says Jet Airways V-P (marketing) Gaurang Shetty.
While this does call for an opportunity for local manufacturers, carriers typically have customised solutions when installing SSKs. This is where private vendors come in. Kingfisher Airlines is rolling out its niche Red Cube SSKs by year-end.
01/09/08 Moinak Mitra/Economic Times

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Categories: Airports Sep 2008, New Sep 2008