Ultra low cost airline Spirit Airlines has installed a biometric self bag drop at Orlando International (MCO).
The deployment of 19 biometric self bag drops also marks 30 years of service by Spirit at Orlando.
The system means that passengers tag their bags and put them into the airport baggage system themselves – no agent involved.
But to do that Spirit passengers have to agree to using their facial biometrics,
The new kiosks use biometric ‘photo-matching’ (most call that facial recognition) that compares a scan of government-issued identification with a photo of the passenger for verification.
Spirit also operates it’s biometric self bag drop at:
This one at Orlando is the largest for Spirit at any airport and is more than triple the size of Spirit’s next largest self-bag drop operation.
How it works
- Passengers check in at a kiosk, print their bag tags, attach them to their bags and proceed to the self-service bag drops (SBD)
- At the SBD, passengers scan their boarding pass and are then told they can continue if they agree to their facial biometrics being used
- If they choose not to use their biometrics, they have to go to an agent
- If they choose to use their biometrics, they have to scan their ID on the SBD unit
- The SBD unit takes a high resolution picture of the passenger, compares it with the one in the scanned ID along with comparing identification information in the passenger’s reservation
- If the matches are OK, passengers can place their bags on the belt, it scans and weighs the bags and takes payment for any additional optional services
- Finally the bags can go to the airport baggage system
Spirit says none of the data is transmitted to any government agency.
Spirit says the average processing time per passenger is 70 seconds but doesn’t explain what that statement really means. Is it 70 seconds including the ID check or is it 70 seconds after the ID check? Is it per bag? etc
Like all self bag drops by all airlines and airports, the figures quoted by Spirit are only for the time spent at the self bag drop. It does not include all the other time involved, like the time to print and attach the tag(s), time to check-in, time to print the boarding pass.
Spirit at Orlando International
Spirit has been operating at Orlando International for 30 years. The airline currently offers service from MCO to more than 50 destinations, including 11 international ones. Spirit added service from MCO to ten new destinations in the last two years alone.
Supplier
All Spirit self bag drops come from the excellent German based Materna ips.
