United Airlines tests the use of RFID to speed up the boarding process for passengers and luggage
chrispeng
United Airlines (United Airlines) and Star Alliance (a global organization composed of 21 airlines to improve passenger experience) and Transportation Security Agency (TSA) test RFID systems at Chicago O’Hare International Airport to speed up frequent airport visitors And check-in procedures for baggage. The Star Alliance tests whether RFID can identify passengers and luggage to speed up the boarding process.
This concept test was first proposed by the Star Alliance Technology Innovation Committee, which is composed of alliance members and technology vendors, explained Aman Khan, the alliance’s deputy director of information technology. The members agreed to test the RFID baggage application, and from this, start the global baggage labeling, reducing the passenger boarding time from the current average of 3-10 minutes to 30 seconds. In the later stages of the project, the team hopes to use RFID to track baggage on board to reduce the rate of baggage loss. United agreed to test this system at O’Hare Airport, and TSA will be responsible for monitoring this project to ensure that it will speed up the boarding process without causing any security issues.
“Our role is to monitor to ensure that there are no security issues during the boarding process.” TSA spokesperson Jon Allen said.
In the test, United provided RFID plastic luggage tags produced by Siemens to 1,000 regular customers. The luggage tag contains a passive UHF EPC Gen 2 RFID inlay, which is encoded with a unique ID code and the passenger’s Mileage Plus code. The Mileage Plus code corresponds to passenger information and booking data in the airline’s back-end database. Hewlett Packard (HP) provides system integration services.
The project was officially launched on February 4 and will last for 6 weeks. Passengers who leave O’Hare and participate in the test will log in to a website at a self-service kiosk at home or at the airport before boarding and print their boarding pass. When passengers check their luggage at United Airport. Aviation staff use handheld RFID readers to read RFID tags on luggage. The ID code and Mileage Plus code of the RFID inlay will be downloaded to the back-end system. The United system automatically registers the luggage at the passenger’s terminal airport. During the boarding process, the passenger (no need to show any ID document or boarding pass) will receive the baggage receipt on the mobile phone.
After the project is completed, Star Alliance will decide whether to adopt the RFID baggage tracking system in other airports and allow more passengers to use the service. “We will advance this project in the best possible way based on customer feedback and test results.” United Airlines Public Relations Manager Jeffrey Kovick said, “RFID can reduce the baggage check-in process from 2 minutes to a few seconds.”
Khan said that the long-term goal of Star Alliance is to achieve global baggage tracking and improve passenger boarding services. “We all know that this technology exists. As an alliance, our biggest challenge is that most airports do not have RFID readers and other infrastructure. In addition, the standards in different places around the world are not uniform, which may lead to this country The label cannot be used in another country.”
“We must first shorten boarding time and improve efficiency,” Khan said: “The next step will be to discuss the possibility of using RFID in their respective aircraft.” IATA estimates that airport losses caused by baggage handling errors amount to US$4 billion each year. ”
At the end of 2008, another member of the Star Alliance, Air New Zealand, began to use RFID technology to improve passenger services. The airport adopted permanent, reusable high-frequency RFID boarding passes.
About United Airlines
United Airlines (United Airlines) is a major U.S. airline company under UAL Co., Ltd., headquartered in Elk Grove Village, Illinois, near its main base, Chicago O’Hare International Airport.
As of the fall of 2005, United Airlines is the world’s third largest airline in terms of total passenger volume, behind American Airlines and Delta Airlines; in terms of revenue-passenger-km, United Airlines is the world’s second largest airline and occupies American Airlines. After that, in terms of total operating income, United Airlines is the world’s third largest airline, behind Air France-KLM and American Airlines. United Airlines employs 61,000 people and operates nearly 500 aircraft.
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