All aboard

With Stan Peterson, owner of VidTroniX LLC

Stan Peterson of VidTroniX answers our questions on the technology solutions for boarding passes and baggage tags.

EUINFRA. In an uncertain business environment, many airlines are looking for ways to reduce costs and increase flexibility. What role can baggage tag/boarding pass solutions play in these efforts?
Stan Peterson. In May 2008, VidTroniX launched a campaign offering a 5 percent discount on all new printer orders. Soon after, the Pay-Per-Print service was set into motion. With this innovative plan, VidTroniX supplies the printer, paper stock and related print materials; the customer pays only for each document printed. The flexibility of this arrangement allows the client to add to, relocate, or remove the printer and paper stock from the locations as the need of the client dictates. Each printer possesses a full lifetime warranty, thereby alleviating the cost of parts and/or repair. There is no capital investment required by the customer. The expense of printing tickets is purely operational and therefore 100 percent tax deductible.

How are technologies such as RFID being employed in airport baggage tags? What particular benefits can these technologies bring?
Currently there are a few airports around the world that are utilising RFID within their baggage handling operations, with the two main major locations being Las Vegas and Hong Kong. VidTroniX was initially involved with the Las Vegas project and is in talks with other airports and airlines for further development of the technology. While the read rate for RFID bags are nearly 100 percent on working tags, the price of the tags and cost of infrastructure are currently too great for the struggling airline market to bear. In addition, once the baggage and cargo leave the RFID enabled facilities, the tags are essentially a standard baggage tag unless they arrive at another RFID enabled facility.

What impact is the growing trend of travellers printing their own boarding passes having on the industry? Do more traditional boarding pass solutions have attributes that newer online alternatives are unable to provide?
Over the last 10 years, the airline industry has moved away from the expensive mag stripe tickets in favour of the 2D bar code. In 1999 Vidtronix, in association with Southwest Airlines, followed shortly by Alaska Airlines, made the decision to move directly to 2D primarily due to the amount of data that could be included on the document. When printing the 2D barcode on ticket stock, it is as secure as the magnetic stripe, but when done at home, security issues arise. While being able to print boarding passes at home is very convenient, they are also fraught with potential fraud as it is not difficult to manipulate the data to bypass initial security and if the scanner is down at the gate, to board the plane. Most airlines and airports use specialised secure stock that airline and TSA representatives are familiar with rather than a standard white sheet of copy paper. In addition, the barcodes via a PDA device or phone can also be similarly manipulated to bypass security, as they are simply an electronic version of the print at home ticket. 

Having the right tool for the job has a big impact on overall efficiency of any operation. What factors do potential purchasers need to consider when deciding on a baggage tag and boarding pass solution? 
As with any industry, cost, reliability and service are important when selecting the right product for your company, but within the travel industry these factors are essential.  Unlike a typical company, an airline is spread across the country, and sometimes the world, and therefore must ensure that the products that they rely on for their business are not only priced right to begin with, but also that they are reliable and they don't need continual service, which in some cases can cost more than the product over its lifetime.  Due to the reliability of VidTroniX's products, our repair department consists of essentially two people for over 65,000 printers in the industry today. One of our newest customers actually cancelled their worldwide service contract for their printers, as it is more cost effective to simply ship the small printer back to us for any repairs that may be needed. One of the many unique features of the VidTroniX ATP printer is that all parts for the new printer are backwards compatible with the first version of the printer. Not only are parts of the new printers interchangeable with the older models, but a more dated printer has the ability to be upgraded to an ATP3 by simply adding a new main board.