Brussels Airport and Brussels Airlines have experiments automated “self baggage drop-off”

Brussels Airport, in collaboration with Brussels Airlines, sets a unique pilot project off that will enable passengers on intra-European flights to check in their baggage themselves before boarding

These newly launched self-service baggage drop-off units, which will be thoroughly tested in the next few months, enable passengers to weigh and label their baggage in a moment. Consequently, it is a real saving of time since passengers no longer have to queue at the manned check-in desk.

More and more passengers are using the self-check-in machines in the departures hall or check in online before setting out for the airport. However, if they have hold baggage, they still have to proceed to a desk at the airport for a wearisome check-in procedure that only deals with the baggage. The recently tested new machine also relieves passengers of this latter vicissitude. Thus passengers will be able to have a check in for themselves and their baggage at the same time.

Brussels Airport is one of the first European airports that integrate these check-in apparatus for hold baggage into the existing check-in desk system. However, to be allowed to use these units, passengers have to possess a printed or mobile boarding pass. This new system is exceedingly easy to use. Passengers just have to insert their luggage into the machine and scan their boarding pass. The instrument weighs the bag and measures its dimensions, prints the baggage tag and displays how to attach the tag to the bag. Then the already checked-in bag passes through the usual way from the airport baggage sorting system to the aircraft hold. For the passenger this whole procedure takes approx. one minute. If the baggage is overweight or greater than the allowed baggage size, the passenger is referred to the staffed check-in desk.  Likewise the situation is the same regarding passengers who wish to check in more than one piece of baggage.

The testing period ends this summer, and it runs two self baggage drop-off units in the departures hall next to Brussels Airlines check-in row 5.  The airport staff  encourages passengers of Brussels Airlines to use these instruments. „While the trial stage goes on we test the user-friendliness of the technology”, explains Brussels Airlines Vice President Ground Operations Peter Cornillie. „If results are positive, this automated system will be a permanent option for all of our passengers flying within Europe.”

Brussels Airport considers this as an important milestone. Self-service baggage check-in systems have been used by Amercian airports for many years, and now European airports are also prepared to introduce them.

Ward Decaluwé, Operational Director of The Brussels Airport Company confirms that it’s the question of time that other airlines too will use this technology: „Brussels Airlines is obviously our partner in important test projects like this. The system’s technology and set-up require a far-reaching integration of the conventional baggage and check-in systems from our viewpoint as well as the airline’s.”

The system’s test project makes an important part of the efforts of Brussels Airport and Brussels Airlines to make the check-in process more comfortable for their passengers.  Passengers who use this system do not only quicken their own check-in process but they also can reduce the time of queuing of other passengers. Brussels Airlines’ passengers have the possibility to check themselves online from their PC or mobile device at no extra cost at the self check-in system in the terminal or at the conventional check-in desks. If the test project proves successful, the self baggage drop-off units will be a real choice for travellers. These kind of technological innovations always attract attention from airport staff as well as passengers.

The units installed at Brussels Airport are developed by the Dutch company Type22, a branch of the Technische Universiteit Delft (TU Delft). The system has been given the name ‘Scan&Fly’ in the market.

© transfers2airports.com

March 26, 2013