"Spokane airport concourse a glimpse at future"

Friday, November 3, 2000

Airport concourse a glimpse at future
Alaska Airlines chief says Spokane facility will help speed air travel
Tom Sowa - Staff writer
Spokane (WA) Spokesman-Review


Spokane _ During his first visit to the new C Concourse at Spokane
International Airport, John F. Kelley of Alaska Airlines said his company is
committed to taking some of the stress out of travel for air passengers.

Kelly -- Alaska's chairman, president and chief executive -- said the new
concourse offers just the first hints of how computers, bar codes and kiosks
will simplify air travel in the next few years.

The $18 million concourse, designed by Bernardo Wills Architects and built
by Garco Construction of Spokane, is now home for all operations here for
Horizon, Alaska and Big Sky airlines.

Kelly said travelers on Alaska can use 13 new ITMs -- Instant Travel
Machines -- designed to cut waiting in line before departures.

"The whole goal and direction is to put the customer in control," Kelly
said.

Instead of queueing for a boarding pass at a counter, those holding
pre-purchased tickets can use an ITM to obtain the boarding pass without
dealing with a counter agent.

The ITM requires a simple, six-character keypunch code to identify the
passenger's ticket information.

Some of the new ITMs at Spokane's airport also automate printing of travel
luggage tags. After getting a boarding pass, passengers can ask for one or
two travel tags, which the ITM prints at the counter.

The agent then attaches the tags to the luggage.

"Alaska even lets you print out your own boarding pass at home," Kelly said.
"You buy the ticket, you print out the boarding pass at home. And if you
don't have bags to check, you bypass the counter and just show up at the
gate," said Kelly.

Kelly said the C Concourse may also be a test site for other new technology
systems Alaska wants to incorporate in the next few years.

"I'm meeting with airport people next week to see if we can use Spokane as a
test site," Kelly said.

Alaska also is designing what it calls "The Airport of the Future" to
streamline travel and ease crowding.

Kelly said the airline will debut that full-service concept at the
redesigned Anchorage airport in 2002. But Kelly wants to test some of the
new features in Spokane.

One technology to be tested: a database of photo IDS to eliminate the need
to produce a driver's license for each flight.

Travelers would arrange for the airline to create a computer profile of his
or her photo, key personal information and pertinent data.

Each ticket that traveler buys then would carry a bar code that identifies
the purchaser.

When showing up at the gate, the bar code would be swiped and the travel
attendant would see a computer screen showing the person's name, address and
color photo.

Kelly predicted 2001 will be a banner year for Alaska, washing away an
abysmal past 12 months. In addition to the crash of Flight 261 off the
Southern California coast in January, Alaska was beset by labor problems, a
lawsuit by ex-employees and an FAA mandate to temporarily ground some planes
to improve maintenance.

Instead of growing a projected 6 percent in passenger miles, Alaska didn't
grow at all in 2000, said Kelly.

The company survived the year by "focusing 100 percent on operations," Kelly
said.

"People tightened their belts, raised their chins and executed, executed,
executed," Kelly said.

He predicted Alaska's passenger-miles will grow 10 percent from 2000 to
2001.

Both Alaska and Horizon are subsidiaries of the parent company, Alaska Air
Group.

Kelly said Horizon -- which has more Spokane flights than Alaska -- will
grow about 2 percent in 2001.

The reason for slow growth is the expensive replacement or upgrade of the
airline's entire fleet of turbojet aircraft, he said.

"That upgrade will have a big impact on every city Horizon serves," Kelly
said.

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