At the cutting edge of technology, less visible and more accessible. Without fanfare, Montréal-Trudeau airport is replacing its self-service check-in points in the hope of making life easier for travellers. Old gray bollards will soon be a thing of the past.
Aéroports de Montréal (ADM) has no say in each step of a passenger’s journey. The current technological shift is the effort of the non-profit organization to shorten the duration of the process. It comes as the airline industry turns the page on the pandemic. Airports have been congested in the past year due to airline hiccups and staff shortages.
“We want to reduce the number of steps here,” explains Aymeric Dussard, vice-president of technologies and innovation at ADM, along with Éric Montplaisir, assistant director, evolution of passenger processes.
PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, THE PRESS
Éric Montplaisir, Deputy Director, Evolution of Passenger Processes, and Aymeric Dussard, Vice President of Technology and Innovation at ADM
Designed by the multinational SITA – which has a strong presence in the city – these terminals are deployed in Montréal-Trudeau, Pearson (Toronto) and Calgary. The changes also concern the equipment at the check-in counter and at the boarding counter.
The terminals – there should be 46 at Montréal-Trudeau this week – are a kind of technological platform in which airlines can adapt their boarding system. The system will be the same at the three Canadian airports.
“What we say to companies is: here is your playground, you can use it to the fullest,” summarizes Mr. Dussard.
It is up to the carriers to take advantage of this. You can, for example, present your boarding pass to check in without having to take out your passport and enter your reservation number.
Aymeric Dussard, vice-president of technologies and innovation at ADM
On average, a passenger can spend between 90 seconds and 3 minutes in front of a self-service terminal, according to the two ADM representatives. There is no specific improvement target that has been set, but we want to speed up the fluidity. Since the beginning of the year, the new terminals have been deployed in the part of the airport reserved for flights to the United States.
New tools
The new self-service points feature a multitude of improvements: navigation keypads, smart card payment and biometric cameras. This tool should speed up the whole process once this technology receives the green light from regulatory authorities to be deployed.
“Let’s go with a fictitious example: when arriving here, the carrier can use the camera to access your file and print the label to put on your suitcase, explains Mr. Dussard. You wouldn’t need to take out your passport. »
The removal of the current terminals will take a break during the spring break since this period is busier. The goal is to complete the transition by the summer.
At Montréal-Trudeau, the project is valued at just over $10 million. Half of the money comes from Transport Canada’s airport critical infrastructure program.
Montreal, Pearson and Calgary have decided to collaborate in order to offer a standardized “interaction experience”, underlines the vice-president of technologies and innovation of ADM. The needs of the three airports coincided since the terminals were reaching the end of their life cycle.
“We wanted to avoid passengers experimenting with different types of check-in and we wanted carriers to be able to develop uniform technological tools,” says Dussard.
SITA was selected following a call for tenders. At Montréal-Trudeau, the self-service kiosks that will be withdrawn were manufactured by Embross.
A credit card to spend faster
There is more than one way to go through the checkpoints at Montréal-Trudeau. A commercial agreement between ADM and Visa allows holders of an Infinite credit card to go before others. This partnership has been in place for a decade, but The Press noticed advertisements promoting the card. “Like other airport authorities, ADM negotiates commercial and advertising agreements with partners,” explains spokesperson Eric Forest. This is part of non-aeronautical revenue. It is also possible to obtain “priority passage” at the screening point with the YUL Express online reservation platform, which took over from the SecurXpress service, set aside in March 2020 when the health crisis broke out.
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- 74%
- As of September 30, the level of traffic at Montréal-Trudeau was three-quarters of what it was in 2019.
Source: Montreal Airports