BENGALURU: A major passenger convenience made its debut at the Kempegowda International Airport on Thursday with the launch of fully automated machines for baggage clearance here. The 16 self bag drop machines will ensure clearance of check-in baggage within just 45 seconds.
Air Asia India and Spice Jet airline passengers were the first to experience this service on Thursday. “These machines will significantly accelerate the baggage transaction and reduce check-in queues,” said an official release from BIAL.
The facility will be extended to other airlines in future. It takes a minimum of 5 minutes to 7 minutes to be cleared at a check-in counter presently and this facility will ensure a drastic reduction in that.
“The BLR Airport is the first in the Country to introduce a large deployment of fully automated baggage drop-off units,” said an official release.
IT Consulting firm, firm Materna Information & Communications SE has designed and installed the facility here. As many as 32 brand new self check-in kiosks, including 8 roving kiosks from Maxworth, partnered with ICTS of Europe, have been specially designed to print passes and baggage tags.
Sunil Bhaskaran, MD & CEO, AirAsia India said, “It is a proud moment for us since we are one of the two airlines that are offering this first of a kind service to guests in Bengaluru. We will now be able to check in all guests on 30+ flights a day from BIAL using Self Bag-Drop.”
THE PROCESS
A passenger needs to first print a boarding pass and an eezee-tag (bag tag) at a self check-in kiosk. Once tagged, the passenger needs to head to the bag drop machine, scan the boarding pass to initiate the bag drop process.
The bag will be measured, weighed, scanned and automatically fed into the baggage handling system.
In case of excess baggage, the passenger will be directed to a hybrid counter to complete the check-in and payment.