LONDON – Passengers flying with Brussels Airlines and other operators in the Lufthansa group will now be able to check in their own luggage at Brussels Airport with a new time saving check-in system.
The new system has been brought in progressively over the summer holiday period and is now fully operational. This summer, Brussels Airport introduced the new system, which allows passengers to check in their baggage themselves at the airport.
Brussels Airlines & Lufthansa group
Using their boarding pass, passengers for short and medium haul destinations operated by Brussels Airlines and other Lufthansa Group operators – Lufthansa, Swiss and Austrian – can now print out their own baggage label and check in their suitcases themselves.
To allow this, a new zone has been installed which is equipped with 16 label kiosks and 6 bag drops where the suitcase is weighed and placed on the belt to the baggage hall.
Significant time savings
The new ‘self-check-in’ system for baggage drop off potentially offers significant time savings for airline patrons – more passengers can effectively present their bags at the same time.
The new system applies to those customers who check-in online. Since more than 75% of the passengers of Brussels Airlines already use the online facility, and thus have their boarding pass with them, they can check in their suitcases far quicker using this system.
The airport states that up to 400 passengers per hour can check in their baggage. Passengers can of course also still make use of the manned check-in desks, as per normal.
Across the summer months of July and August, 35,000 suitcases, or almost 10% of the suitcases of the short and medium haul flights of the Lufthansa Group, were checked in using the new Baggage drop-off facility.
This is an extensive pilot during which the system will be closely monitored, with a view to expansion possibilities in the future.
Summary
One of the key problems which airports have almost universally experienced through the post-pandemic re-opening stage has been congestion and delays at the check-in stage of the air travel process.
Perhaps the trialling and cutover of newer ‘self-assist’ systems such as the baggage check-in facility instigated at Brussels Airport will go some way towards reducing passenger congestion, bottlenecks and delays at the terminal.
As the statement by Brussels Airport and Brussels Airline suggests, over three quarters of passengers are making use of the online check-in process for ticketing already.
The new baggage check-in system seems to be a convenient extension of that online process, which perhaps might be embraced on a wider basis, following the airport’s trial of the system.
