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 national carrier 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 installed 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 at 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 the use of paper boarding passes as part of its zero waste to landfill targets.
