Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport has experienced a whopping 215 percent growth over the last four years in the use of self-service check-in by passengers using the facility, according to data released on Oct. 13 by the Airports Council International-North America Annual Conference in Austin, Texas.

“It is great to see an American airport leading the way for the air transport industry in these challenging economic times,” said Catherine Mayer, the Atlanta based vice president for airport services at SITA, a specialist in air transport communication and information technology solutions.

“Atlanta is also very unique because it was the one international hub where we found 100 percent awareness of the availability of self-service check-in,” she added in a statement.

According to the press release, Atlanta also stands out because 4.2 percent of passengers compared to less than 1 percent last year use mobile-phone check-in, a reflection of the increased use of smart phones.

“Lack of awareness (of self-service check-in capabilities) among passengers remains a major obstacle to adoption. Very significant numbers of passengers at airports surveyed in India, Brazil and South Africa, between 21 percent to 41 percent depending on the location, were unaware if self-service check-in was available to them or not. Atlanta has done a great job in raising awareness and educating the public.”

For the past four years, SITA has conducted its air transport world passenger self-service survey passengers who use Hartsfield-Jackson, Atlanta; Mumbai International, India; Charles de Gaulle, Paris, France; Moscow Domodedovo, Russia; Sao Paulo Guarulhos, Brazil and OR Tambo International, Johannesburg, South Africa.

This year 2,193 passengers were interviewed at the airports’ departure gates.

Online booking grew from 73.4 percent at Hartsfield-Jackson last year to 76.7 percent this year compared with 63.7 percent worldwide among passengers using the six leading international hubs included in this year’s survey, according to the SITA news release.

The release also said that the most dramatic growth is seen in Web check-in where actual usage now stands at 32 percent compared to 7 percent four years ago. Kiosk check-in also continues to grow with actual usage now at 46 percent compared to 32 percent four years ago, according to the release.

Passengers in Atlanta interviewed before their departure flights earlier this year, also expressed confidence in their “future frequent use” of further innovations in the area of passenger self-service such as mobile phone check-in (22 percent); remote bag drop (31 percent); text messaging, (45 percent); kiosks to report lost baggage claims (26 percent) and self-service transfer desks (35 percent).

The SITA survey found that the main reason globally why passengers did not use the self-service check-in option was because they had bags that needed to be checked in.

“The issue of simplifying bag drop for check-in baggage is being addressed by the industry through revised processes and we expect to see some of the benefits coming through in next year’s survey. At the moment less than 25 percent of those surveyed had the experience of printing a bag tag, which is a necessary stage of any efficient bag drop process,” said Ms. Mayer.

A SITA sponsored Webinar on the passenger self-service survey can be viewed at www.atwonline.com

For more information, go to www.sita.aero.

2010 The Agio Press, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without expressed permission.