Airports go 'hands off' to quell fears

[reader]

From Bangkok Post

The Airports of Thailand (AoT) is introducing self-check in and luggage-loading services at Suvarnabhumi airport to reduce contact between passengers and staff to help mitigate against the risk of Covid-19 infections.

AoT president Nitinai Sirismatthakarn said on Saturday 180 machines will be installed at the country's main gateway airport to make check-in and other activities self-service.

The machines will be trialled this month before being integrated in July.

He said the machines are linked to a database which includes flight information from other airlines as well as the Immigration Bureau, the Interior Ministry and various security agencies.

The system will speed up pre-flight procedures and build travellers' confidence in the AoT's public health security ahead of the resumption of normal commercial flight operations, according to Mr Nitinai.

The AoT president said the system will be made available to travellers with no luggage who will be able to use self-check-in kiosks at the airport.

Alternatively, they can download the AoT App and use it to check in for their flights before getting to the airport.

Travellers with luggage can also use the check-in kiosks as new self-service luggage loaders are being installed as part of the initiative. Charges for exceeding weight allowances can also be paid on the spot via the interface.

After that, travellers will have their boarding passes checked at unmanned biometric security stations.

In the future, the AoT is also looking to replace officials with the biometric system to check boarding passes while people wait to board their flights, Mr Nitinai said.

In the meantime, the International Air Transport Association (Iata) has urged governments to make data-driven decisions as they mull reopening their borders to international travel.

Well-implemented, but quarantine free, strategies can enable international travel to restart while minimising the risk of spreading Covid-19 to the travel destination, according to Willie Walsh, Iata's director-general.

"Data should drive policies on restarting global travel that manage Covid-19 risks to protect populations, revive livelihoods and boost economies," he said.

He said there is no one-size-fits-all solution to handling the various levels of risk, but pointed towards the need to justify the economic and social cost of blanket measures taken by most governments which have been unnecessarily high.

"Everybody can respect a data-driven decision. That is the way back to normality," said Mr Walsh.

https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2127407/airports-go-hands-off-to-quell-fears

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From Tourism Authority of Thailand

[spoon]

Anyone knows why suddenly daily dose given today way lower than previous days?

[NIrishGuy]

"Charges for exceeding weight allowances can also be paid on the spot via the interface"

In my experience ^ THIS is more about why airports are installing self check in baggage machines - and each and every airport I've seen them in I've also seen queues of furious people wanting to argue with airline staff and an equal number of airline staff wanting to try to avoid the passengers as they too know that the machines are there solely to generate income for the airlines  - whilst putting a load of their colleagues out of work at the same time !

 

[anddy]

On 6/6/2021 at 7:08 PM, spoon said:

Anyone knows why suddenly daily dose given today way lower than previous days?

maybe in preparation for the big bang on Monday, when the REAL vaccination drive starts?

[anddy]

On 6/6/2021 at 6:05 PM, reader said:

Charges for exceeding weight allowances can also be paid on the spot via the interface.

It should read "Charges for exceeding weight allowances MUST also be paid on the spot" (or else your won't go through). Machines are unforgiving, whereas check in staff can and very often does waive any excess fees, often not even taking notice of the weight (maybe because it's a bureaucratic hassle for them? No idea, just guessing). 

I've tried to use such a machine (I think it was in Singapore) when travelling with a friend who had too much, of course it didn't allow it. Went to a counter and through it went with no issue, no fee, no nothing.

I'm with @NIrishGuy here, nobody will like such machines for the reasons he gave....

[NIrishGuy]

"a friend who had too much, of course it didn't allow it. Went to a counter and through it went with no issue, no fee"

Yep you're right there Anddy and that also was my own experience too.   

We have all at some point i'm sure carried out the inadvertent ( or intentional) turning up at the desk with one or two ( or 10 ! ) Kilos "over" and either turned up early in the hope of sweet talking the check in operator, hoping that as it was the start of the check in that they were feeling lenient or just didn't care. Or perhaps knowingly timing it so that we were verging on "late" and so knew the staff would be busy just trying to get everyone checked in and ON the plane and so we knew / or hoped they wouldn't stop / charge us anything - or it has even been known for people to slid a foot under the weighing scales to save a few kilos even ( not me, I read about it in a magazine once just Im sure :-). For me I can say that such rouses worked probably about 75% of the time or more even perhaps.

Now however, with the advent of the introduction of these infernal machines this means that there's ZERO tolerance for even just a one Kilo over AND as Anddy had said all payments MUST now be made at the machine with your credit card BEFORE a boarding card will be spat out at you.

This then results in ridiculously long queues forming of people either totally disgruntled at being charged at all, or for whatever reason perhaps finding themselves unable (or unwilling) to pay the ( granted ridiculously high) "over at the desk" charges!  Either way these machines are not a good thing and we should all rise up and take a wrecking screw driver to each and every one of them we find before they become "the norm" !  :-)

This is one machine that the luddites may have had a point about !!! :-(   

 And yes, before anyone says it 'yes of COURSE we could all just turn up with the correct baggage limits, all correctly weighed and pre-checked" - but a) sometimes that's hardly that it sounds when returning from holiday at least and mainly.......sure where would be the fun in THAT !  

[BigK]

On 6/7/2021 at 2:02 PM, NIrishGuy said:

we should all rise up and take a wrecking screw driver to each and every one of them we find before they become "the norm" !  :-)

 

Good idea!