Swissport and SITA launch world’s first common-use Bag drop solution for Airlines at Zurich

Zurich/Singapore – Swissport International, global leader for Ground Aviation Services, and SITA, the Aviation IT specialist, announced the deployment of the world’s first passenger bag drop solution which allows a single counter to be used to service passengers from several airlines in the same queue: a real innovation for a smarter process-flow.

Ten such counters have been created and successfully tested at Zurich Airport to the benefit of some 10 airlines – including most of the Star Alliance - whose host departure control systems are recognized by SITA’s new software solution known as PassengerBagdrop which eliminates a potential bottleneck in the passenger management process.

Anita Elste, Manager Product and Services for the Star Alliance, said: “We have paid a number of site visits to Zurich to watch Passenger-Bagdrop in action. Multi-airline or common-use bag drop counters are much more efficient and the average time passengers spend being processed has dropped to just under 30 seconds. Handling agents access a single standard user interface for all supported airlines.”

PassengerBagdrop also supports passengers who have already checked in online but, for whatever reason, do not have a boarding pass as it can easily re-print the original boarding pass.

Rico Barandun, Head of Swissport’s e-Services, said: “Swissport and SITA have just celebrated the fact that two million passengers have now used our web and kiosk check-in solutions. Swissport customers will appreciate the significance of this latest development as it will lower costs for airline customers and improve passenger throughput without increasing check-in space. We are particularly pleased to deploy it for the first time in such a prestigious location as Zurich airport.”

Bruno Frentzel, SITA Senior Vice President for Applications Solutions, said: “This is a real innovation for a smarter process flow at airports. PassengerBagdrop is an important development in SITA’s Baggage Portfolio. We intend to innovate further in the near future with PassengerBagdrop Off-Airport. This will be specifically designed for logistics companies to allow them to provide departing airline passengers with basic flight check-in and a secured baggage pick-up from off-airport locations such as hotels.”

Swissport International Ltd., which is owned by Ferrovial, a leading European infrastructure and service corporation based in Spain, provides ground services for over 70 million passengers and 3.5 million tonnes of cargo a year on behalf of some 650 client companies. With its workforce of around 33 000 personnel, Swissport is active at 179 airports in 41 countries on five continents, and generated consolidated operating revenue of CHF 1.9 billion (EUR 1.3 billion or USD 1.8 billion) last year. www.swissport.com / www.ferrovial.com