This article from NYTimes.com has been sent to you by psa188@juno.com. Delta Moves to Speed Check-In February 6, 2003 By SUSAN STELLIN Seeking to eliminate at least one of the lines passengers have to endure at the airport, Delta Air Lines announced a plan yesterday to modify its procedures at 81 airports in hopes of ensuring that most customers do not have to wait more than two minutes to check in, even at peak times. Delta plans to spend up to $30 million this year to redesign its airport lobbies, adding more than 400 self-service check-in machines to the 400 it now has and reassigning customer service agents to roles directing passengers to the fastest check-in alternative and helping those who need additional assistance. Delta also plans to install phone banks in airport lobbies that will connect customers who have complicated requests to telephone reservations agents, who the airline says can typically handle ticketing changes much faster than agents at the airport. Customers who use the phones will be able to obtain boarding passes from a printer near the phone bank. "The whole airport will look dramatically different than it does today," said Rob Maruster, director of airport strategy and service for Delta, which has been testing its lobby concept for the last several months at LaGuardia Airport in New York. The initiative was first reported yesterday in USA Today. In a sense, Delta is playing catch-up with some competitors, which have already made a big push to install self-service technology. Continental Airlines, for instance, currently has 683 automated check-in machines in 113 airports, and last year more than 60 percent of its domestic passengers took advantage of this option. Other airlines at the forefront of this trend include Northwest, which has 643 self-service check-in units in 145 airports; American, with 613 machines in 77 airports, and Alaska Airlines, with 379 machines at 74 airports. All three carriers report that about 40 percent of their fliers take advantage of self-service check-in, compared with 25 percent for Delta, which aims to increase that to 50 percent by year's end. In addition to the self-service check-in machines at airports, Delta, Northwest, American, Alaska and US Airways also allow passengers to check in online and to print boarding passes from a home or office computer, in some cases up to 30 hours before a flight. That option has been slower to catch on with travelers, though several airlines have begun promoting Web check-in through advertising campaigns. Across the industry, the push toward self-service is being encouraged by a number of factors, not least the need to cut costs in hard economic times. A Delta spokesman, John Kennedy, acknowledged that the airport changes were part of plans to reduce costs $2.5 billion by 2005. Delta has also announced that it will eliminate 7,000 to 8,000 jobs throughout the company, and Mr. Kennedy said, "Certainly, these initiatives have taken into consideration that overall head count." Although these changes may suggest less personal attention at the airport, so far there does not seem to be much objection from customers, perhaps because the technology offers the prospect of a faster check-in process at a time when security procedures are taking more time. And with the new Transportation Security Administration increasingly requiring passengers to have boarding passes, not just e-ticket receipts, before passing through security, the airlines have moved to provide self-service alternatives to fliers. Still, airlines stress that customer service agents are not disappearing and that passengers who want more attention can find it. "Rather than a traditional ticket agent waiting for a customer to come to them, you'll see more employees in front of the counter taking a more proactive role before the customer even tries to get in a line," said Richard Cordell, Delta's senior vice president for airport customer service. Executive Pay Cuts ATLANTA, Feb. 5 (Bloomberg News) - Delta will cut pay 8 percent for most executives and 10 percent for its chief executive, Leo F. Mullin, and its president, Frederick W. Reid, on March 1, the company said in a memo to United States employees. Delta may also lower employee wages to be competitive with carriers that have filed for bankruptcy protection, Mr. Mullin said today at a Goldman, Sachs transportation conference. The memo, sent on Tuesday, said pay cuts were not being considered this year for nonunion workers. Mr. Mullin said wage rates would need to be competitive with those at United Airlines and US Airways, which are reorganizing under bankruptcy protection. "Delta cannot be a high-wage payer vis-à-vis other airlines," Mr. Mullin said at the conference, "and expect also to survive outside of bankruptcy so there will be some further work on that." http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/06/business/06FLY.html?ex=1045540187&ei=1&en=9959cd99297cb35c HOW TO ADVERTISE --------------------------------- For information on advertising in e-mail newsletters or other creative advertising opportunities with The New York Times on the Web, please contact onlinesales@nytimes.com or visit our online media kit at http://www.nytimes.com/adinfo For general information about NYTimes.com, write to help@nytimes.com. Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company