Sydney Airport First in Australia to Offer Self-Service Check-In to International Travelers

Self-service check-in will be available for international travel at Sydney Airport as early as next year thanks to a Memorandum of Understanding between the International Air Transport Association (IATA) and Sydney Airport Corporation Limited (SACL) that was signed last week.

The agreement is the fifth of its kind signed by IATA and leading international airports as part of the industry association´s Simplifying the Business program. This agreement sets the stage for a 16 Common Use Self-Service (CUSS) kiosk type-trial at Sydney Airport´s International Terminal followed by a staged rollout that could lead to significant growth in self-service availability.

The project is being driven by a working group comprised of international airlines, Australian aviation and control authorities under the forum of the National Advisory Facilitation Committee (NatFal), SACL and IATA.

“We have calculated CUSS savings at US$2.50 per check-in. At 40 percent market penetration across the world´s airports, that adds up to US$1 billion in annual industry savings,” said Tom Murphy, senior vice president, Industry Distribution & Financial Services, IATA. “With airline losses projected to be US$7.4 billion this year, the need to simplify our business is greater than ever.”

Max Moore-Wilton, executive chairman and CEO of SACL, said in a release that the self-service check-in was an important initiative in a range of projects being undertaken to maintain and improve high standards at Sydney Airport.

Currently at Sydney International Airport, self-service check-in is limited to domestic operations with limited uptake. The pilot project, scheduled for January 2006, will introduce an international self-service product involving two to three airlines using IATA industry-standard CUSS compliant applications.