Hanover, 06/03/2009. Hoeft & Wessel AG, of Hanover, has commenced with delivery of more than 300 check-in terminals to Deutsche Lufthansa Aktiengesellschaft. In the next several months, the new terminals will replace the predecessor terminals also sourced from Hoeft & Wessel at more than 30 airports throughout Europe. As part of the first delivery, the Lufthansa hubs in Frankfurt and Milan-Malpensa have already been successfully equipped.

Lufthansa will receive leading-edge terminals featuring the user-friendly RFID technology. All air passengers need to do now is hold up their Lufthansa Miles & More credit cards with PayPass function in front of the card scanning device to begin the check-in process. A passport scanner facilitates check-ins with machine-readable passports. This scanner also identifies the barcode on the boarding ticket or mobile phone display, making it possible to change reservations subsequently, such as the selection of some other seat. Moreover, by laying passports face-down, the readers can be used conveniently and speedily to record the APIS data such as passport numbers, names and dates of birth required by the public authorities in many countries. According to Lufthansa’s parameters, in Frankfurt as many as one third of all check-in processes are already executed at terminals supplied by Hoeft & Wessel. 

Apart from featuring the new RFID technology, the almex.express terminals also excel thanks to their leading-edge and ergonomic design. Longer service intrevals lead to a significant reduction in operating costs. Hoeft & Wessel had already supplied the predecessor generation to Lufthansa at the turn of the millennium.

With more than 10,000 self-check-in systems of its Almex brand already installed across Europe, Hoeft & Wessel is one of the leading suppliers in this field. For the next several years, the company expects the demand for check-in terminals to intensify slightly. The transition to 2D barcodes within the scope of the changeover from paper to electronic tickets is making the terminals cheaper to operate. For this reason, the company also expects demand to increase not only from airlines, but also from airports seeking to extend their range of services by installing terminals of their own.

Hoeft & Wessel at the Passenger Terminal Expo, London, 24–26 March 2009:
Stand 1125