Airline’s Vision Set to Take Flight

By HOLLAND, Natasha in Auckland

AIR NEW ZEALAND will next year roll out a multi million-dollar efficiency plan and among the changes include boarding passes being sent to mobile phones.

Air New Zealand short-haul airlines group general manager Bruce Parton yesterday unveiled the airline’s revamped vision for domestic flights.

The technology-based vision is designed to get rid of checking in and baggage queues.

People will now have the option of having boarding passes sent by e-mail, mobile phone or smart code, with a barcode embedded. That means a person can swipe the barcode on a scanner, avoiding the traditional check-in at an airport.

The airline also plans to have pre-coded reuseable baggage tags for regular flyers, and that will mean people will drop their bag on a conveyer belt, and avoid the baggage check in.

The changes would be rolled out in two stages, and would be installed at regional airports including Invercargill and Queenstown, Mr Parton said.

The streamlining system was an Air New Zealand first, and the first worldwide system for domestic flights, he said.

We have said that the fight for airlines to be competitive would be in airports not in the air, he said.

Customers have said they don’t want to spend time waiting in airports, he said.

The airline’s new philosophy was “we don’t do queues” , Mr Parton said.

Stage one of the technology is expected to be rolled out from January to June next year and the second stage from July to December, also next year.

Mr Parton said the changes would not result in job losses as staff would be reassigned into customer service rolls.

(c) 2007 Southland Times, The. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.