US: How the world's busiest airport envisions post-COVID travel

Airlines and airports worldwide are reining in costs and halting new spending, except in one area: reassuring pandemic-wary passengers about travel. "Whatever the new normal ... it's going to be more and more around self-service," said Sean Donohue, CE of Dallas-Forth Worth International Airport (DFW). The airport is working with American Airlines - whose home base is DFW - to roll out a self-check-in for luggage, and all of its restrooms will be entirely touchless by the end of July with technology developed by Infax Inc. They will have hands-free sinks, soap, flushing toilets, and paper towel dispensers, which will be equipped with sensors to alert workers when supplies are low. "One of the biggest complaints airports receive are restrooms," Donohue said. Dallas is piloting three technology options for luggage check-ins: Amadeus's ICM, SITA, and Materna IPS. DFW has become the world's busiest airport thanks in part to a strategy by large global carrier American to concentrate much of its pandemic flying through its Texas hub. Last year DFW rolled out biometric boarding for international flights and is taking advantage of the lull in international traffic to work with US Customs and Border Protection to use the VeriScan technology for arriving passengers too, he said. The Dallas airport is also testing new technology around better sanitization, beginning with ultraviolet technology that can kill germs before they circulate into the HVAC system.<br/>