If you spend more than three minutes checking in for your flight out of Chek Lap Kok starting next month, it probably will be because the agent's stapler is jammed. Stapling the tax receipt to the ticket is the only manual operation of the whole check-in process.
Everything else - checking and confirming the reservation, allocating a seat, issuing a boarding pass and printing baggage tags - should take only two minutes for economy class or three if you are flying business class.
Such a quick and efficient process relies not only on the agent's dexterity but also on the system that ties the procedures together. Known as common-use terminal equipment (Cute), the system automates passenger processing, from ticketing to check-in and boarding.
But Cute does not just improve customer service. After the check-in counter is closed, agents can input passenger numbers and make sure no seats are duplicated or wrongly assigned. Safety measures also are improved. A feature called baggage/passenger reconciliation monitors all baggage and alerts officials if the passenger who owns them fails to show up.
About 80,000 passengers are expected to be processed daily at Chek Lap Kok. The Cute system both optimises airport terminal space and enables agents from different airlines to share resources and access their applications or information from any check-in counter, boarding gate, transfer gate or ticketing area.
Computer workstations, boarding-pass printers or readers and bag-tag printers are all equipped with software that automatically identifies the host airline, allowing them to be used interchangeably by several airlines.