New Naia: No more long passenger queues

Passenger processing at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) is about to get faster after global aviation IT and communications company SITA won a three-year contract for Terminals 1 and 2.

SITA officials were in the country Wednesday to outline plans for Naia, including a preview of next-generation passenger processing via a single token platform using biometric technology that could be ready in the next few years.

For now, the company is looking at rolling out the latest available technologies for “fast”  self check-in, bag drop, boarding and bag tracking at Naia. The initial services being introduced at Naia included bag tracking and local DCS, or departure control services.

“We are doing right now proof of concept for [self-service] kiosks, bag drops and self-boarding,” Ilya Gutlin, SITA president for Asia Pacific, told reporters. “The airport is deciding which technologies to trial next. Once the trials are done, it would take four to six months to roll out the technology.”

According to SITA, self-service bag drops can be completed by passengers in less than one minute. Self-boarding, meanwhile, can cut the entire process by half.

The new services are also in step with global trends. According to a 2016 survey conducted by the company, 57 percent of passengers already use self-service check-in facilities.

Gutlin said adoption is expected to increase as passengers and airport authorities become more comfortable with the new platforms. This, in turn, would help improve efficiency and convenience as the government seeks to address congestion issues at Naia.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) also backed the use of “fast travel” platforms.

Vinoop Goel, IATA regional director for airport, passenger and cargo security for Asia Pacific, said in the same briefing that at least 80 percent of global passengers should be offered “a complete suite of self-service options” by 2020.

According to SITA, the initial Naia rollout also involved the overhaul of the passenger processing systems in Terminal 1 and 2, putting its next-generation technology SITA AirportConnect Open in place.

This will be the platform for Naia’s next phase of transformation over the coming months, allowing the airport to introduce common-use self-service kiosks, self-bag drop and self-boarding gates.

“We are starting with shared airport systems and as we progress in our transformation, we plan to introduce self-service technology such as check-in kiosks, bag drop and possibly self-boarding,” Ed Monreal, Manila International Airport Authority general manager, said in a statement.

“The airlines have committed to test these self-service systems in the coming months as we work together to alleviate the peak season passenger surge,” he added.