Image 2005 Arpingstone. Released into public domain.

If previous events in airline history are any indication, airlines will be doing away with check-in counters at airports very soon.  That’s right, your good old airport check-in that you’re used to will be going out the door as part of the continuing saga of airline cutbacks.  And don’t think this is something that may happen sometime in the future, it is actually already underway.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Ryanair, an Irish ultra-low fare carrier, has decided that by year’s end they don’t want to deal with check-in desks at airports.  They’re getting rid of them.  All gone; all that will be left is a baggage drop-off counter (if Ryanair doesn’t find a way to get rid of that too).  But, why would this be indicative of an industry wide action?  Well, because for decades now, airlines have followed a monkey-see, monkey-do attitude and it doesn’t appear to be changing anytime soon.  Where do you think charging for checked bags got its start?  At American Airlines?  On  United?  Nope.  It all started with small carriers such as Ryanair and Spirit Airlines.  And once the model proved effective for them, the strapped for cash major airlines followed the lead.  If the no check-in counter proves somewhat feasible after it gets implemented by Ryanair, other carriers will surely follow, looking for a way to cut a large portion of their personnel jobs and the related expenses.

For Ryanair, this is part of a larger effort to cut costs at the carrier.  The airline expects to shut down some routes and hopes to stop flying at least 19 planes by the end of the year.  By eliminating airport check-ins, the airline says it will cut costs associated with 80% of its check-in workforce and a large portion of its baggage handling workforce.

How customers respond to this will be interesting.  For the most part, passengers have taken all the recent new airline fees with an interesting attitude.  They have complained quite a bit, but remained flying most of the airlines they previously flew.  Will Ryanair suffer a setback from this?  I don’t think it will be big.  Already 65% of its passengers are checking in online, so it’s a minority they have to convert.  They’ve done much worse things before as far as airline policy and passengers keep coming, so I think Ryanair will be fine.  However, if the new, no check-in, policy grabs the attention of other airlines, problems could ensue.

Ryanair is relatively cheap.  It’s cheap enough that if you get bad service or are treated inferiorly to other airlines, you probably won’t care too much.  But what if US Airways decided this was a great policy?  How would the customer feel then about paying $300 for a ticket and having to do everything themselves at home.  For almost a decade now, airlines have continued to drop services and add fees, and there may come a point when passengers get fed up with it.  On the other hand, some passengers may not complain.  They may look at this as the difference from using an ATM or an actual bank teller; you can do a lot at the ATM.

Still, I’m left to wonder if in aviation, taking the human-interaction-with-your-customers element may be such a good idea.  There are a lot of people out there who have never checked in online and would love to have a service representative help them.  And what about those who have never been on an airplane?  How will they fare with online check-in only policies?

What do you think?

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