This from today's commercial aviation briefs:
VENDOR/PROVIDER BRIEFS
ARINC Portable Check-In Helps Virgin Atlantic Passengers to 'Chill Out' a Little Longer
Virgin Atlantic Airways says it wants its passengers to enjoy every minute of their Caribbean holidays. That's why the airline created its "Check In, Chill Out," program. On the day of their departure, homeward-bound U.K. passengers can have their luggage picked up and their boarding passes delivered right in their hotel lobby.
But printing hundreds of boarding passes in advance, delivering each one to the correct passenger at hotels across Barbados and St Lucia, and dealing with additional requests such as seat changes posed a formidable task. Now, Virgin Atlantic has found a simpler way to please its passengers, using new technology from ARINC.
Virgin Atlantic staff now come to the hotel with a suitcase-size computer along with the boarding passes. They plug the computer into an Internet connection, and while face-to-face with each passenger, they can verify personal identification, deal with seat changes and, if necessary, print out a correct boarding pass, as well as accept the passenger's bags.
Virgin has purchased ten iMUSE Express systems for a pilot project starting in the second quarter of 2004. The units will be rotated at larger Barbados and St Lucia hotels. If the project succeeds, Virgin may expand the service to additional hotels.
Virgin Atlantic is the first airline to make a large-scale deployment of iMUSE Express, which was introduced in 2003 at the Rosen Centre Hotel in Orlando, Florida. That installation was the first off-site check-in for multiple airlines ever approved by the U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA).
VENDOR/PROVIDER BRIEFS
ARINC Portable Check-In Helps Virgin Atlantic Passengers to 'Chill Out' a Little Longer
Virgin Atlantic Airways says it wants its passengers to enjoy every minute of their Caribbean holidays. That's why the airline created its "Check In, Chill Out," program. On the day of their departure, homeward-bound U.K. passengers can have their luggage picked up and their boarding passes delivered right in their hotel lobby.
But printing hundreds of boarding passes in advance, delivering each one to the correct passenger at hotels across Barbados and St Lucia, and dealing with additional requests such as seat changes posed a formidable task. Now, Virgin Atlantic has found a simpler way to please its passengers, using new technology from ARINC.
Virgin Atlantic staff now come to the hotel with a suitcase-size computer along with the boarding passes. They plug the computer into an Internet connection, and while face-to-face with each passenger, they can verify personal identification, deal with seat changes and, if necessary, print out a correct boarding pass, as well as accept the passenger's bags.
Virgin has purchased ten iMUSE Express systems for a pilot project starting in the second quarter of 2004. The units will be rotated at larger Barbados and St Lucia hotels. If the project succeeds, Virgin may expand the service to additional hotels.
Virgin Atlantic is the first airline to make a large-scale deployment of iMUSE Express, which was introduced in 2003 at the Rosen Centre Hotel in Orlando, Florida. That installation was the first off-site check-in for multiple airlines ever approved by the U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA).
