SITA and Alstef Group sign partnership agreement to launch Swift Drop

SITA today announced that it has signed a partnership agreement with Alstef Group, an established baggage handling specialist, to launch Swift Drop, a new self-bag drop solution that significantly speeds up the experience of checking your own bag.

Mexico City’s brand new Felipe Ángeles International Airport, opened in late March, has become the first airport globally to install 20 Swift Drop units.

The fast, intuitive interface means passengers can quickly check their bags, avoiding long queues at traditional check-in points. This will give passengers more time to spend airside, providing a boost to airports’ retail revenues. Passengers simply print their own bag tags without need for assistance and load their baggage directly onto the accessible conveyor.

Part of SITA’s awarding-winning Smart Path passenger processing portfolio, Swift Drop is comprised of SITA’s TS6 Kiosk and Alstef Group’s fully integrated bag processing solution. For airports and airlines, Swift Drop dramatically improves baggage handling from the minute a bag is put on the conveyor belt, identifying overweight and oversized bags in seconds. Advanced camera tag-reading technology ensures baggage will also be processed faster, with an average first-time tag read rate of 95%.

Drew Griffiths, Head of SITA AT AIRPORTS, said: “In airports globally, our Smart Path passenger solution has delivered faster, automated passenger experiences. The partnership with Alstef Group – leveraging their significant baggage handling portfolio – enriches our end-to-end offering with a fast, convenient, and reliable self-bag drop solution. This solution has the added benefit of being easily biometrically enabled.”   

Philippe Hamon, Sales Director, Airport Solutions, Alstef Group, said: “Taking the stress out of baggage is fundamental to any passenger’s journey. Our baggage processing solutions have been successfully implemented in hundreds of airports globally to do exactly that. It is therefore pleasing that we can extend these benefits to the whole passenger journey through our partnership with SITA.”