Atlanta fliers embrace online booking, kiosk check-in

Travelers at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport are increasingly booking tickets online and using kiosks to check in, at a rate higher than some other large airports around the world.

A survey of passengers at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson, Mumbai International, Charles de Gaulle in Paris, Moscow Domodedovo, Sao Paulo Guarulhos and Johannesburg was released recently by SITA, an air transport IT company with North America offices in Atlanta. Results are being presented Tuesday at a conference in Las Vegas.

The survey found that in Atlanta, 18 percent of travelers check in online and 38 percent of travelers use kiosks for checking in, compared with 19 percent and 20 percent a year earlier.

Across the six airports, an average of 36 percent of passengers checked in online or with kiosks, compared with the combined 56 percent in Atlanta.

Mumbai had a 19 percent rate of online check in, the only airport in the survey with a higher rate than Atlanta.

North America in general is “one of the early adopter markets” for self-service technologies, which can cut costs for airlines, said SITA director of portfolio marketing Dominique El Bez.

Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines, which is the largest carrier at Hartsfield-Jackson, recently reached a goal of getting 80 percent of passengers to check in online, at kiosks or at the curbside in Atlanta and other airports.

The SITA survey showed 73 percent of respondents in Atlanta said they booked their tickets online, up from 57 percent in the 2007 survey.

While many online sales are through sites such as Orbitz, Travelocity and Expedia, Delta’s goal for online sales this year was to sell at least 35 percent of its tickets through delta.com. Delta chief executive Richard Anderson told employees the company reached that goal in September.