Spirit Airlines - Best New Transportation Product or Service

Company: Spirit Airlines
Entry Submitted By: Cramer-Krasselt
Company Description: Spirit Airlines (NYSE: SAVE) is committed to delivering the best value in the sky. We are the leader in providing customizable travel options starting with an unbundled fare. We serve destinations throughout the U.S., Latin America and the Caribbean - making it possible for our Guests to venture further and discover more than ever before.
Nomination Category: New Product & Service Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Transportation

Nomination Title: Spirit Airline's Self Bag Drop & Biometric Technology

Self-bag drop launched at New York’s LaGuardia Airport on January 14, 2020.
Public testing of biometric photo matching capabilities began at LaGuardia on May 19, 2020.
Full implementation of biometric capabilities occurred at LaGuardia on August 3, 2020.
Full implementation of self-bag drop and biometric photo matching occurred at Chicago O’Hare Airport on August 12. 2020.

Spirit airlines is the first carrier to roll out self-bag drop for checked luggage in the United States, and the first to develop a biometric identification option designed to allow anyone with a driver’s license to have an entirely contactless flight check-in experience. Spirit rolled out the technology at two of the nation’s busiest airports in 2020, proving the biometric system’s effectiveness and laying the groundwork for widespreadimplementation beginning in 2021.

The new self-bag drop for checked luggage employs a two-step approach. Guests start by printing a bag tag at a kiosk following check-in. Then they go to a self-bag drop lane, where a machine measures, weighs and scans their bags to ensure they’re the correct size and weight before automatically feeding into the baggage handling system to be routed for flight. The machines are also payment-enabled to avoid a detour to handle overweight bags.

We expanded the equipment’s efficiency in May of 2020 by enabling biometric ID verification as part of a proof-of-concept with the Transportation Security Administration, in which Spirit developed an entirely new framework for verifying travelers’ identities within the unit itself and without the need for transferring data to and from government databases. Once Guests opt in, onboard equipment scans their faces as they stand in front of the unit and compares them to the photo on their ID or passport. A match initiates the rest of the self-bag drop process. Impending TSA approval will mean Spirit representatives no longer need to manually verify identification when people check bags, which removes the touchpoint involved in handling Guest IDs and frees Team Members to handle more complicated issues at neighboring ticket counters.

Following a successful launch, Spirit began discussing ways to work with airport partners so that the initial biometric photo match allows Guests to proceed from curb to aircraft without needing to stop at additional identification checkpoints. We expect the current system and any future expansion of its capabilities to serve as a model for airline health and safety efforts by reducing touchpoints in ticket lobbies, increasing confidence in air travel and expediting check-ins.

Though it’s impossible to quantify, the reduction in touchpoints is invaluable. Even with demand for air travel depressed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, O’Hare alone represents more than 600 daily bag check transactions for which reduced face-to-face contact provides peace of mind.

Convenience is something we can measure. CBS News focused heavily on Spirit’s technologyin a September story on the need to modernize the airport experience due to COVID-19 and changing demands from travelers. As travel analyst Henry Harteveldt told the network, “if they can check out at a store or supermarket using touchless technology, they want that at the airport and on the airplane.” https://youtu.be/vcFNR3QZOi4

Initial data indicates self-bag drop with biometric photo matching is 30 percent quicker than checking a bag with an agent at a ticket counter, dropping the per-transaction time to just 70 seconds. Assuming every Guest on a typical flight served by an Airbus A321 checked one bag, the system would save nearly two hours of processing time, reducing queue length and dramatically expediting the check-in experience for Guests who would normally be in a line devoted to simple bag drop transactions with an agent.

We expected speed improvements, but we were surprised by the pull the technology has on people who would have otherwise gone through a full-service lane. Spirit’s mix of Guests is skewed more heavily toward younger travelers (age 44 and below) than most of our competitors, and they expect to have technology-based options available when they travel. We find that more of those people are opting for self-bag drop instead of defaulting to full-service for one reason or another, which frees our agents to spend more time on Guests with complicated ticketing and re-booking needs.

Airline industry publications like The Points Guyhave lauded the technology for its broad applicability, given that it’s available to anyone with a driver’s license instead of requiring a passport and TSA Precheck membership like the implementation one of our competitor’s recently rolled out. https://thepointsguy.com/news/spirit-airlines-biometrics/3

We've provided a second copy of links to the previously-referenced stories from CBS News and The Points Guy. You'll also find links to a collection of photos and videos that illustrate the technology's functionality, along with press releases issued to mark the launch of basic self-bag drop functionality and the lateractivation of its biometric capabilities.