ARINC has announced it has completed a major installation of 189 new self-service passenger kiosks at terminals 1, 3, and 4 of London Heathrow Airport, the world’s busiest international airport.
The installation is the largest deployment of common-use self-service kiosks at Heathrow and will serve upwards of 18 international airlines at the three terminals. ARINC’s customer is BAA, owner and operator of Heathrow and four other UK airports.
The complex installation required ARINC to upgrade and support an older generation of kiosks while gradually replacing them with new A2 series kiosks from its partner IBM. ARINC maintained a high level of passenger service by fully supporting both types of kiosks during the changeover.
"Automated passenger processing solutions are more critical than ever for airports today," stated Andy Hubbard, ARINC EMEA managing director. "Efficiently managing the diverse passenger profile of today’s travellers is key to an airport’s success, and a cost-effective and reliable common-use self-service system is a vital part of the solution. We are delighted to be given the opportunity to assist Heathrow Airport in delivering on their vision of streamlined passenger handling."
"IBM has worked with a large number of airlines and airports around the world for many years and is dedicated to developing smarter ways to make airport operations more efficient and cost-effective," said Stephen Luurtsema, associate partner, Travel & Transportation IBM Global Business Services, UK and Ireland. "Customer service is a major priority for the travel industry today so delivering the next generation of common-use airport check-in kiosks including baggage tagging capabilities to London Heathrow International Airport will make a real difference to the passenger experience. Our vision is to deliver an end to end customer experience for the passenger that represents a smarter, hassle free and empowered customer journey. This is another step forward in delivering that vision."
ARINC and IBM won the Heathrow kiosk contract with a three-part proposal to improve the operation of existing kiosks, provide ongoing maintenance and support, and install new IBM kiosks.
ARINC fast-tracked the installation, quickly taking over and supporting the existing common-use self-service kiosks from 1 April, 2010. On these kiosks ARINC installed the latest IBM common-use self-service V 1.2 software platform, with management support provided by the new IBM Kiosk Manager (KM4) software, to manage their associated airline applications. In September 2010 ARINC began replacing the existing kiosks with new IBM A2 kiosks operating on the new IBM common-use self-service software platform.
"We congratulate ARINC on their rapid and successful implementation," said Ian Reynolds, senior planning manager, Heathrow Airport Limited, BAA. "Based on their responsiveness and the quality of the work performed, we are confident that our common-use self-service installation is in good hands."
ARINC has become the industry leader in common-use self-service kiosk passenger processing, and collectively ARINC and IBM have installed approximately 60% of the common-use self-service kiosks at airports worldwide.
ARINC is also the provider of the common-use passenger check-in and departure systems at London Heathrow terminals 1 and 3, under contract to the LHR Shared Systems Board representing 62 international airlines.