Beijing - The International Air Transport Association (IATA) and China’s Travelsky have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to jointly promote “Fast Travel” in China. The MOU was signed on 5 November by Zhang Baojian, IATA’s Regional Vice President for North Asia, and Xiao Yinhong, Travelsky’s President.
Under the MOU, IATA and Travelsky will establish a working group to promote and raise the awareness of Fast Travel in China, share information and resources, jointly develop an action plan for implementing Fast Travel, and co-organize seminars and events to promote and raise awareness of the project to Chinese airlines and airports
Fast Travel is the next phase of IATA’s Simplifying the Business project and responds to increasing passenger demands for self-service. It builds on the platform provided by common use self service kiosks (CUSS), bar coded boarding passes (BCBP) and 100% e-ticketing. The vision is to offer full service to passengers through a range of self service options, from reservations to arrival.
IATA has identified six key areas of focus:
- Check-in: using the Internet, CUSS, and mobile phones
- Bags ready-to-go: taking advantage of baggage self-tagging and common bag drop-off points
- Document scanning: creating a self-service option for routine documentation validation
- Flight re-booking: helping passengers organize onward travel and issue new boarding passes
- Self-boarding: supporting cost-effective passenger self-boarding on a global basis
- Bag recovery: facilitating self-service baggage mishandling reports
IATA’s aim is to conduct two pilots per project by the end of 2008.
Notes for Editors:
The airlines and airports currently involved in Fast Travel pilot programmes include:
- Check-in: Air Canada, KLM, Air One, Delta Airlines, Lufthansa
- Bags ready-to-go: Air Canada/Vancouver Airport, Air Canada/Montreal Airport
- Document scanning: Continental Airlines/Montreal Airport, Air Canada, KLM
- Flight re-booking: Continental Airlines, United Airlines
- Self-boarding: Japan Airlines, All Nippon Airways, Lufthansa, SAS, Air France
- Bag recovery: Continental Airlines / Houston Airport