PRESS RELEASES

On June 3 and 4, IER brought together in Miami the airlines and airports from North and South America around the theme “Extending the Self-service Experience”.

The event was targeted at airline and airport leaders and innovators in the field of IT, airport customer service, operations, strategy and marketing who are making the airport of the future a reality. During the two-day working sessions, a variety of IER and industry speakers presented some of the most innovative airport solutions rolled out in the last 12 months and shared their vision of the airport of the future.

This meeting allowed IER to share views with numerous transportation industry representatives from the Americas region on topics such as kiosk innovations, self-tagging, self-service baggage drop, self-boarding gates and security checkpoint automation. The success of the meeting demonstrated IER’s capability to understand the changing needs of the market and to imagine innovative solutions to improve passenger processing through the airport, while at the same time improving efficiency and reducing costs for air transportation operators.

“We found the IER Customer Forum very informative” said Jared Miller, Continental Airlines’ Managing Director of Self-Service and Emerging Technologies. “It was a great opportunity to hear about self-service projects around the world and innovative ways in which some airlines such as Continental are implementing technology to help facilitate the customer journey while improving their bottom line. The format was conducive to good discussions with colleagues from the industry”

“IER is committed to supporting our customers and partners in this industry – airlines, airports, integrators and consultants - deploy innovative solutions aimed at improving the passenger experience. We are seeing in 2010 a real influx of new projects revolving around self-service”, stated Herve Muller, IER Vice-President and General Manager for the Americas. “This first Customer Forum hosted by IER in Miami was therefore a very timely opportunity to share the new technologies and practices in the self-service arena. The attendance from all over the region exceeded our expectations and demonstrated a strong interest in kiosks, self-tagging, bag drop and boarding, witnessing how important these topics are to our customers.”

Following the success of the first IER Customer Forum in Paris in June 2009 followed by one in Hong Kong in October 2009, IER already plans to renew in 2010 and 2011 the organization of such widely appreciated meetings in different geographical areas.