Buster Hyman

September 17, 2004 - 4:04PM

Discount airline Virgin Blue Holdings expects to start rolling out self-serve kiosks at airports later this year to allow passengers to check in faster and help keep a lid on the need for more check-in staff as the airline grows.

Virgin Blue managing director Brett Godfrey said the kiosks initially will allow people checking in without luggage to use their credit card or lounge membership card in an ATM-like machine to check in more quickly.

In the next phase of development, the machines would be able to print bag tags to allow people with check-in baggage to also use the facility.

Once people had their boarding passes printed out and had tagged their own bags, they would then go to a manned desk for the usual security checks.

Mr Godfrey said the airline was also pursuing home check-in and phone check-in.

The rollout of the kiosks will start at Brisbane airport in November this year.

"The first phase is just to get them working. It'll take 12 months to roll them out but they're very efficient," Mr Godfrey told reporters after addressing the American Chamber of Commerce in Australia.

"The key fiscal objective is that as a result of the growth that we've got planned, even in the next five years, we will not be putting on single head over and above where we are today.

"So we'll basically be capping our necessity for airport staff."

Mr Godfrey said 80 to 100 of the kiosks were expected to be rolled out at most airports.

Mr Godfrey said there was a cost involved to the rollout but it was "not overly material".

"It's basically a PC encapsulated in a big steel box and its wired into our reservation system," he said.

"It's touch-screen technology, that's pretty cheap these days, so it's not even going to be a blip in the depreciation line."

© 2004 AAP