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44 airportbusiness November 2015 MANAGING AIRPORTS TODAY As some services become more personalized, passengers are enjoying a greater sense of autonomy and the ability to facilitate their experience themselves, such as using their mobile phone to way-find themselves through the airport. It is no surprise that passengers are taking to travel self-service like a duck to water as it provides them with more choice and control from airport curb side to airside. In fact, a recent survey of global travelers found that passengers preferred self-service technology options, allowing for a more personal, self-directed travel experience coupled with the potential for shorter queues. The current incarnation of passenger self-service is one that is still in its relatively nascent stage within the airport ecosystem. With the emergence of smartphones several years ago, passengers found them- selves able to check into flights in advance, and lately also to use their smartphone to present a mobile boarding pass to airport security and at the gate. Today, new and emerging self-service technology is showing great promise in helping facilitate a smoother, more enjoyable traveler experience from the moment the flight is booked until the moment the passenger leaves the airport of his or her final destination. To better understand how much passenger facilitation tools have matured is to look more closely at the emerging technologies that are available to assist travelers today. IMPROVING PASSENGER FACILITATION TO MEET EXPECTATIONS Meeting the growing expectation for an unfettered access to information —such as real-time updates about flight delays and gate changes, as well as a personalized service for taxi, hotel and retail offers—airports and airlines are collaborating to develop and test innovative ways to offer frictionless customer service. Increasingly sophisticated mobile applica - tions and emerging technologies, like Near Field Communications (NFC), are also likely to play a role in further boosting passenger self-service. Following in the footsteps of the online check-in at home, home- printed bag tagging is becoming more widely used. Since Alaska Air first piloted the scheme and it was first commercially introduced by Unisys at Billund Airport in Denmark, Iberia, Air France-KLM, Deutsche Lufthansa AG, and Qatar Airways are now just some of the airlines currently using home-printed bag tags, which fliers fold into plastic wallets provided by the airline or airport. Another area of coming change is with permanent bag tags, or elec - tronic devices that are attached to fliers' luggage that digitally display their flight information including bar codes. Fliers update the tags via Bluetooth from their smartphones, and the airline can also update the tag if its owner gets rerouted. Airlines are also moving to improve bag tracking ahead of a June 2018 deadline set by industry groups. This tracking should help reduce the rate of mishandled bags worldwide, as airlines in 2014 lost 7.3 bags per 1,000 fliers, compared with 13.2 bags in 2003. MAINTAINING PRIVACY AND SECURITY Streamlining the check-in and automatic bag drop process will increas- ingly involve the incorporation of technologies that let the airport recognize passengers throughout the journey. For example, solutions involving the art and science of uniquely identifying passengers, be it via facial recognition, www.aviationpros.com/10017751 Technology used in security queue can reduce the time passengers spend waiting.