China Eastern Airlines (“China Eastern”) has selected NCR Corporation, the global leader in consumer transaction technologies, to provide 40 additional self-service check-in kiosks, as well as multi-vendor, on-site support services for its entire fleet of 130 airline check-in kiosks. This includes NCR-branded kiosks and those made by another technology company, making NCR the largest airport check-in solution provider for the carrier.

“We are particularly excited to extend NCR’s leading multi-vendor service capabilities to the travel industry in China for the very first time. We will continue to focus on delivering quality solutions and services to maintain high customer satisfaction and make our customers’ lives easier.”
China Eastern is expanding NCR self-service check-in for domestic airports, including Shanghai, Hefei, Lanzhao, Taiyuan and Nanchang. The airline is also extending the convenience of self-service check-in to off-site locations, including Xian Xianyang Aviation Hotel and the carrier’s ticketing office in Lanzhou. This further enhances the passenger experience by bringing the convenience of self-service check-in, upgrades and other services to passengers before they arrive at the airport. Off-site access also reduces lines and wait times for passengers at the airport.

China Eastern selected NCR for its IT support service network in China, which includes parts depots and warehouses enabling NCR to provide efficient and fast on-site support and parts recovery services to its kiosks around the country.

“China Eastern’s strategy has been to continually improve the customer experience and NCR has increasingly been utilized to bring that goal to fruition, not only through our solution but also services,” says Tyler Craig, NCR Travel vice president and general manager. “We are particularly excited to extend NCR’s leading multi-vendor service capabilities to the travel industry in China for the very first time. We will continue to focus on delivering quality solutions and services to maintain high customer satisfaction and make our customers’ lives easier.”

The kiosks also feature NCR’s patented two-sided thermal paper technology, saving up to 40 percent on paper costs, reducing staff workload for paper replenishment and facilitating group check-in. The kiosks also read mobile barcodes, drivers’ licenses and passports, making the check-in process even easier and giving China Eastern the potential to develop paperless self-service check-in in the future. All additional kiosks are expected to be installed in the third quarter.

China Eastern currently runs on the CUSS (“Common Use Self-Service”) platform and applications provided by TravelSky Technology Limited (“TravelSky”), the chief information technology provider of China’s air travel industry. NCR TouchPort kiosks passed the self-check-in compliance tests of TravelSky in May 2011, verifying that NCR kiosks are fully compatible with China Eastern’s self-check-in system.

Today NCR provides airport check-in solutions for three of the top five airlines worldwide.