JetBlue Airways, New York's hometown, low-fare airline, has implemented a wireless curb-side check-in system to "bust lines" during busy travel periods.
The mobile check-in solution, the first of its kind in the U.S. and co-developed by Datavision-Prologix and Barcode Products Pty, allows designated JetBlue staff to check-in passengers, print boarding passes and check luggage virtually anywhere inside or outside the terminal.
"Waiting in line only adds to the stress of flying during peak travel weekends like Memorial Day," said Jeff Cohen, JetBlue's Vice President and CIO, IT. "This unique system not only cuts frustration and saves time for our passengers, it helps us keep our operations running smoothly and ontime, by allowing us to get passengers, especially late ones, checked-in and to the plane without delay."
Currently, the wireless check-in service is only available at JetBlue's base in Terminal 6 at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, but the airline plans to roll it out to all its other city operations shortly.
The handheld system, which consists of a wireless local area RF network, portable data terminals and portable receipt/ticket printer, also allows JetBlue staff to access passenger and flight information via a wireless real-time connection to the HP Open Skies reservation system.
"When JetBlue came to us to design a wireless curb-side check-in solution, we relied on the extensive wireless experience of our engineers to custom design a portable solution bringing real-time accurate information right to the curbside," explained David Gulian, VP of sales, Datavision-Prologix.
JetBlue now operates 72 flights a day with a fleet of 14 brand new, environmentally friendly Airbus A320 aircraft. From its base at John F. Kennedy International Airport, New York City's most on-time airport,(1) JetBlue flies six times daily to Fort Lauderdale, FL; five times daily to Buffalo and Rochester, NY; four times daily to Orlando, FL; three times daily to Tampa, FL and Syracuse, NY; twice daily to San Francisco/Oakland, CA, West Palm Beach, FL and Burlington, VT; and daily to Los Angeles/Ontario, CA, Salt Lake City, UT, Seattle, WA, and Fort Myers, FL. On May 17, the airline will begin daily service to Denver, CO, and add a new daytime service to Ontario, CA.
JetBlue, which has carried more than 2 million passengers since launching in February 2000, was voted the #2 domestic airline for comfort and service in the 2001 Zagat Airline Survey and recently received top ranking (A grade) in an online survey by PlanetFeedback.com. In 2001, JetBlue will take delivery of another seven new Airbus A320 aircraft outfitted with roomy all-leather seats, each equipped with LiveTV offering 24-channel satellite television. LiveTV is available free of charge to all JetBlue passengers.
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