All 108 passengers checked-in for easyJet flight 6503 to Prague using the new easyJet kiosks at Nottingham East Midlands Airport. This included a total of 112 items of hold baggage that were issued with standard airline-industry bag tags. The flight departed on schedule at 18.50.

Department for Transport-approved trials of the new self-check-in kiosks began on the morning of Wednesday 26 May at Nottingham East Midlands with easyJet staff guiding passengers through the simple process. The trial will continue over the coming weeks and months before rolling-out the programme to other airports on the easyJet network.

The initiative, which would ultimately see kiosk-only check-in, is part of easyJet’s drive to reduce costs by using technology to simplify processes and reduce complexity. It will also help to increase airport capacity by using space more efficiently.

Some airlines have offered self-check-in for passengers with hand luggage for a number of years and a very small number allow self check-in for those with hold baggage. However, all these airlines allow passengers to check-in using either kiosks or traditional methods. Keeping two channels open is an unnecessary duplication and increases, rather than decreases, costs. Ultimately dual processes keep fares unnecessarily high.

easyJet is recognised all over the world for its pioneering use of technology to keep costs low. easyJet was the first airline to recognise and embrace fully the commercial opportunities of the internet (“the web’s favourite airline”); it was the first airline to offer passengers the opportunity to look up the details and change elements of their bookings online; and almost every week the company’s ubiquity as an online retailer and brand is recognised by different organisations (from Google to Euro RSCG).

Ray Webster, easyJet Chief Executive, said:

"It is a fantastic achievement for all passengers to check-in for a flight using one of our kiosks and flight 6503 to Prague from Nottingham East Midlands Airport will go down in the history books at easyJet.

"easyJet’s business is all about simplicity and removing costs by making systems and processes more efficient. Airport costs represent the single biggest element in our cost base and we are determined to reduce this by applying the same thinking that has been so successful in other areas of the business.

"In due course, this could revolutionise the airport process in the way that the Internet revolutionised the booking process. Central to this new technology is the ability to improve passengers’ airport experience. It will also allow staff to give more of their time to customers and better attend to their individual needs."

NOTES

Features and benefits of the easyJet check-in kiosk:

• Check-in opens two-hours before scheduled departure time
• Passengers use simple touch-screens to identify their flight and retrieve their individual bookings
• Passengers use the screens to answer standard Department for Transport security questions
• The kiosk prints a boarding card for all passengers
• Passengers with hand baggage only proceed to departure lounge
• Passengers with hold baggage print out standard airline-industry baggage tags and take the bag to a conveniently-located ‘bag drop’ area where it is reconciled with the individual passenger
• Passport and ID checks are undertaken at the departure gate