SWISS teams up with AirPortr for home baggage pick-up and check-in service
Travelers can have baggage collected, transported and checked-in conveniently
Swiss International Air Lines (SWISS) has embarked on a partnership with digital platform and provider of smart baggage solutions AirPortr to further expand its range of passenger services. SWISS passengers traveling from Geneva Airport can now have baggage collected, transported and checked in from their home or hotel with transportation to their destination.
The AirPortr service allows passengers to have their registered baggage picked up from their home or hotel and looked after all the way until they collect it from the carousel at the destination. The service is available via a dedicated link and can be booked at any time provided the bags are picked up no later than 23 hours before departure. The service is already available throughout much of the Lake Geneva region including Geneva, Nyon, Lausanne and Montreux, and is expected to be expanded throughout Switzerland after evaluation of the trial period. The price of the service per bag is based on the pick-up location. SWISS is the first airline to offer this service in Switzerland, but it is expected to soon be extended to SWISS’s sister airlines within the Lufthansa Group.
Multiple benefits
Travelers can make their way to Geneva Airport unencumbered by bags. On arrival, with their registered baggage already taken care of, they can bypass the usual check-in and bag drop formalities and head straight to the security check. The result: time savings, and a more contact-free airport process. In addition, passengers traveling to their departure airport unburdened by baggage are more likely to do so by public transport. This was recently confirmed by a study of existing AirPortr users, in which 66 percent of respondents reported opting for public transport as they no longer needed to carry their bags. Given SWISS’s declared commitment both to halving its carbon dioxide emissions by 2050 and to intermodal solutions, this is a further key benefit of the new AirPortr option, reads the October press release.
"Our customers tell us that getting themselves and their bags to the airport is one of the most challenging parts of their travels," said SWISS CCO Tamur Goudarzi Pour. "We’ve listened to them and, thanks to our new partnership with AirPortr, we can now offer them a new travel experience that begins before they leave home. Working together, we can show that travelling is easy, quick and transparent, however you choose to do so. Our new service is tangibly superior to the classic baggage transport options. And it also makes a substantial contribution to our sustainable-travel ambitions."
"The Lufthansa Group with SWISS are showing the way to becoming the world’s most digitally advanced aviation group by using digital technologies to enhance the customer experience, make travel more connected and more eco-friendly and optimize ground operations," said Randel Darby, CEO and founder of AirPortr. "Switzerland boasts a world-class public transport system in a country. This gives us an ideal environment in which to develop our collaboration with SWISS."
Collected at home
AirPortr has teamed up with Swissport, premier provider of airport ground services, to collect the registered baggage from passenger homes and hotels. Under Swissport’s responsibility, the baggage is picked up from the passenger after verification of their ID and boarding pass. The travelers receives a digital baggage receipt to ensure traceability, and are informed by email and text message of the baggage whereabouts at every step of the journey. The bags are also sealed at the passenger's home to ensure their secure delivery to the airport, where they will be subjected to the usual security checks.
"With these intuitive and customer-minded solutions, the whole complex baggage handling process has been transformed into a service that is centred firmly on the traveller," said Bruno Stefani, Swissport’s Managing Director Switzerland & France. "As a result, they can individually tailor these services to their specific wishes and needs."
