Bengaluru airport to have self check-in, baggage handling

Bengaluru: Passengers flying out of Kempegowda International airport here will no longer have to stand in long queues for check-in as the airport operator plans to implement a system that allows passengers to print their own boarding passes as well as baggage tags from next month. The private airport operator, Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL) has signed a seven-year, multi-million dollar contract in this regard with the global aviation IT firm SITA to implement such a system. The new system is expected to be operational from next month, a release by SITA said on May 14.

The company, however, did not disclose the contract value. "We chose SITA because we wanted a single supplier that could provide a complete passenger processing platform and baggage reconciliation system and also help us implement the new Common Use Self Service kiosk (CUSS) platform with both bag tag and boarding pass options," said BIAL President for airport operations Hari Marar. BIAL is a 74:13:13 joint venture with GVK-led consortium as the majority partner while state-owned airport operator Airports Authority of India (AAI) and Karnataka Government each having 13 per cent stake.

The airport had handled 15 million passengers in the fiscal, ended in March 2015. The contract includes SITA's passenger processing platform AirportConnect Open, the latest self-service check-in kiosks and baggage reconciliation service BagManager, the release said. In total, 180 common-use workstations and 30 new CUSS kiosks will run on the SITA AirportConnect Open platform, the company said, adding that all 31 airlines using the airport can access their respective IT applications in real-time on shared equipment.

They can also use any airport desk, gate or self-service kiosk for passenger check-in and boarding, SITA said, adding this ensures maximum flexibility and convenience for the airlines as well as for the airport and passengers. SITA's baggage reconciliation service would provide the airport with comprehensive baggage management, delivering real-time information on baggage status and helping resolve issues quickly and efficiently.

In addition, BagMessage service ensures on-time departures with a fully managed and secure baggage message distribution system, the company said. "SITA is proud to be a partner to BIAL in pioneering the implementation of the first bag tag printing at self-service kiosks in India. We will be extending these solutions to 40 other airports in the country," said SITA vice-president for India and sub-continent, Maneesh Jaikrishna. Implementing SITA's latest passenger and baggage management technology will help simplifying airport operations and improving passenger flow and efficiency, he added.