Case Study
This article originally published in Self-Service World magazine's special section, FOCUS: Self-Service Software, Sep 2007.
In the late 1990s, Delta Air Lines decided to develop its own self-service check-in kiosks to alleviate long check-in lines at ticket counters. The pilot program took about two years, and the first kiosks were deployed for the exclusive use of SkyMiles members to generate a boarding pass.
"We weren't able to keep up with customer volume at peak hours in the airline environment," said Susan Henderson, general manager of self-service products for Delta Air Lines. Back then, it was not unusual for passengers to wait an hour in check-in lines to complete even the most basic transactions with a gate agent. As more passengers came to rely on self-service options, Delta realized internal resources could not keep pace with technology developments and surging airline travel.
As air traffic has grown, the brick-and-mortar space of airports has stayed the same. Airlines have to figure out how to handle more traffic without physically expanding space at the gates or adding agents. "One agent might be quicker than one kiosk, but one agent can't be quicker than eight kiosks," Henderson said.
Cleared for takeoff
After a thorough search, in summer of 2001 Delta selected Kinetics USA to take its self-service strategy to the next level. Kinetics delivered the first systems in nine months, after weathering the tragedy of Sept. 11 and the ensuing shock wave that ripped through the airline industry.
With the Kinetics products, Delta expanded its self-service offerings to include changing seat assignments, changing flights, adding a frequent flyer number, printing a boarding pass and checking luggage. Delta launched a massive communications campaign to entice passengers to try the kiosks, which now were open to all passengers, not just members of the frequent flyer program.
With the first iteration, 500 customers using self-check-in was considered a good day. By the end of 2003, millions of customers a year were using it, Henderson noted. Today, about two-thirds of Delta's 106 million passengers interact with the airline's 1,400 kiosks each year. Now, a 10-minute wait is considered long, and the self-service model firmly is part of Delta's business plan.
Delta's strategy is to drive simple transactions to the kiosks and to be selective about what the kiosk will and won't do.
"We want passengers to shop for tickets on the Web site, not at the kiosk," Henderson said. However, a kiosk can sell a pass to the Crown Room airport club, a simple transaction that boosts Delta's incremental revenue stream.
Rough weather
Kinetics had to learn to work with Delta's legacy systems and with its self-contained technology group. To integrate with Delta's system, Kinetics had to adjust its code to use tools it normally doesn't support. "The biggest challenge was how do we allow that code to come in, and five years later we still face some challenges," Henderson said. 
In 2004, Kinetics became a subsidiary of self-service provider NCR, and Delta has seen the benefits, including greater administrative support and additional product offerings. But Kinetics still has a small-company mindset. "We look to Kinetics for their entrepreneurship, nimbleness and flexibility," Henderson said. "Doing changes in-house would take two months, where they can do it in a week."
From humble beginnings, Delta's self-service kiosks have become an integral part of its operation. During peak travel times, a 10-minute interruption can ripple throughout the airport. "We may take flight delays if the kiosks are not able to process all the customers through the ticket lobby," Henderson said.
Blue skies ahead
The next project for Kinetics is to align the code and service offerings of the kiosks with Delta's Web site. "The more we can take our customers out of the airport to do all of their transactions, the better it is for everybody," Henderson said.
