Emirates Installs Self-service Kiosks

Emirates Airline has become the latest carrier to install the almex.check-in self-service kiosk from Höft & Wessel, in a project that was realised in just 5 months from contract signature to cutover. Höft & Wessel was the overall contractor, working in close collaboration with its partners Materna GmbH, who provided the software, and Energy International (Dubai) for 24/7 hardware maintenance support. Passengers with hand-luggage on Emirates flights are the first to use the kiosks, which are located in the first, business & economy class departure halls of Dubai
International Airport.

Using Skywards card (Frequent flyer program of Emirates and Srilankan airlines), Frequent flyer cards of partner airlines, ATB (Automated Ticket & Boarding Pass) tickets, as forms of identification, passengers begin the check-in process, select their seats from a seat map, and obtain boarding passes. The system offers both through and return check-in, made secure because the Höft & Wessel kiosk has an escrow hopper, that ensures that all the tickets are printed successfully before the completed set is presented to the passenger.
This also prevents a passenger from leaving the kiosk before the last ticket is finally printed, which might then be taken by the next passenger using the kiosk.

Emirates selected Höft & Wessel due to the extendibility of the almex.check-in kiosk, thus ensuring a high degree of future-proofing for their investment. All 11 kiosks are pre-prepared with bag-tag printers and wide range of additional modules, including passport reading and biometric devices, can be added at a later date. Materna's Massai Cuss platform has been used to make the kiosks fully Cuss compliant, giving Emirates the option of sharing the kiosks with partner airlines. Whilst passengers may perform the check-in in Arabic and English language, several other languages may be added at a later date.