BEIJING — NCR Corp. today announced a deal with China Southern Airlines to deploy 30 NCR TouchPort kiosks at the airline's big-city hubs of Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Changchun and Zhengzhou in China. This is the first deployment of airline kiosks in China for NCR, a leading global provider of self-service solutions.
According to a news release, NCR TouchPort kiosks utilize Common Use Self Service, or CUSS, technology, which allows different airline applications to run concurrently on a single self-service device. These are the first CUSS-compliant kiosks deployed by China Southern. NCR also will provide maintenance services for China Southern to provide optimum performance and availability for passengers.
"The deployment of self-check-in kiosks from NCR is an essential prerequisite for our partnerships with other airlines and offers the potential to provide travelers with additional services from a single location in the future, such as car rental and hotel check-in transactions," said Huang Wenqiang, vice president of the IT department for China Southern.
Once installed, the NCR TouchPort kiosk will offer passengers the opportunity to check in, view seat assignments, make seat changes, review itineraries and print boarding passes. Additionally, for passengers who have already completed check-in via the Internet, the kiosk may be used to access the reservation and make changes if desired. The NCR TouchPort kiosk also is equipped with an integrated barcode imager to facilitate customer identification and an integrated passport reader to cater to international travelers.
China has become the world's second largest airline market, behind the United States. With the surge in the number of travelers, airports and airlines are looking to deliver greater efficiency and convenience through self-service. A 2009 consumer self-service survey conducted by Buzzback Market Research for NCR reveals a clear connection between self-service and passenger preference worldwide, particularly in China, with 92 percent of Chinese respondents indicating they are more likely to choose a travel company that allows them to interact easily via kiosk, online and mobile self-service channels.
