Australia’s national carrier Qantas has begun rolling out next generation airport kiosks, which will make the airport experience faster and easier for customers travelling on domestic flights. The airline has started a limited trial of new self-service kiosks in Terminal 3 at Sydney Airport.
After fine tuning the new technology with customers, the airline expects to have them fully installed in Sydney by early June and around 140 kiosks across all major domestic airports by September. These will replace the existing kiosks that customers use to check in and print baggage tags.
With more than three quarters of customers already checking in online and using digital boarding passes on their smartphone, the new kiosks will primarily be used for bag tag printing. Customers will also be able to use the new kiosks to purchase additional bags.
The new technology is up to four times quicker than the existing kiosks, with the process to print a bag tag now taking just 20 seconds on average. Any customers who haven’t checked in prior to arriving at the airport will be able to use QR codes on the kiosks to quickly check-in online and receive a digital boarding pass. Customers will still have the option to be checked in by a customer service agent if needed.
The increased use of digital boarding passes will also help reduce paper waste. Pre-COVID almost 25 million paper boarding passes were printed each year which can’t readily be recycled. Qantas committed in 2019 to phase out their use as part of its zero waste to landfill targets.
Qantas Group Chief Customer Officer Stephanie Tully said the pandemic had accelerated the shift towards digital services, with an almost 40 per cent increase in the number of customers checking in online in the last two years.
“We have seen consumer preferences dramatically shift towards digital and being able to manage their own journey, so we’re investing more in our app and airport technology to make traveling easier,” Tully said. “The existing kiosks were instrumental in reducing queuing for check-in at airport counters when they were introduced more than 10 years ago, and these new kiosks will match the latest technology with customer preferences.
“Understandably, our customers want to move through the airport and get to the lounge or boarding gate as seamlessly as possible, and the new kiosks will help speed things up. We will incorporate feedback from Frequent flyers as the new kiosks are rolled out across the network.
“We know that some customers would prefer to speak to a person when they check in, so we’ll continue to have the same number of Qantas team members available in the terminal to help customers with enquiries as well as have check-in desks open,” she added.
The upgrades at the airport follow recent investments to improve the functionality of the Qantas app providing frequent flyers the ability to:
• change flights after check-in
• add frequent flyer number to bookings.
• request Classic Flight Reward upgrades; and
• bid for upgrades using points.
To use the new kiosk, passengers must first check-in online, approach the kiosk to print their bag tags, drop the luggage at the auto-bag drops and use their digital boarding pass to board their flight.
