Airlines hope to bid farewell to long check-in queues in Dublin

Travellers through Dublin Airport this summer will now be able to skip the baggage check in queues following a €2 million investment in 62 new self-service kiosks.

The kiosks will allow passengers to check in for their flights and tag their own bags without ever approaching a check-in desk, depending on the airline.

Four airlines operating out of both terminals at the airport have signed up to use the new kiosks – Aer Lingus, Ryanair, CityJet and Flybe – but it is expected that others will follow.

Ryanair has 15 self-service bag drop kiosks in its check in area, with three for general use by other airlines. Aer Lingus has 44 self-service kiosks in terminal two, including 12 bag drop units.

Investment

"This €2 million investment streamlines and simplifies the baggage check-in process for passengers," said Dublin Airport managing director Vincent Harrison. "It will reduce check-in queue times and also increase the overall capacity at check-in in both Terminal 1 and Terminal 2."

He said the kiosks were already having an effect on check-in times, and was one of a number of measures the airport is implementing to add capacity.

The introduction of the new kiosks means that airline passengers take on even more of the tasks that used to be carried out by the desks, from checking in at home and getting their boarding cards to tagging their own bags and dispatching them into the bagging system themselves.

It’s a “touchless” bag drop too, which means the kiosks automatically detect the tags and weight, before sending off the bags without the passenger touching a button. There are audio prompts for visually impaired passengers.