Provide passengers with a seamless journey through departures with Better Check-in

Better Check-in turns passenger forecasts, processing times, and airline and handler requirements into check-in counter opening and allocation plans. Automatically plan how many counters to open, when to open them, and where to allocate flights, with passenger and baggage flows informing each decision.

Better Check-in is part of Better Airport® — the world’s leading connected operations platform for airport operators.

Three key benefits for your airport

Improved passenger experience

A smooth check-in experience makes sure your travelers begin their journey in a good state of mind.

Smoother operational planning

Daily plans can be created quickly using parameters such as airline preferences, passenger forecasts, and baggage influx. Data including wait times, share of passengers outside the queue area, utilization of check-in counters and more make it easy to continually optimize.

Easy to use

Elegant design and a considered user experience make it extremely easy for planners, supervisors, schedulers, and senior-level staff to understand and use the solution.

Case Study: Automated check-in allocation

Smooth and adaptive airport processes are a vital part of any successful airport. One such process is passenger processing. Passenger processing refers to the handling of the passenger and their baggage, including the handling of their data and security as they move through the journey to the destination airport. Passenger handling involves issuing tickets, cancellations and refunds, baggage handling, check-in, security checking, and more.

The Better Check-in airline passenger processing system optimizes passenger processing, handling, and flow by using a daily, dynamic plan for automated counter allocation. The system bases allocation based on passenger and baggage flows — while never violating baggage area constraints.

With the ability to link to your FIDS, Better Check-in allows for changes directly in the plan. This creates robust and accurate plans and helps to ensure that passengers are always kept in the loop, improving both the passenger experience and staff workflows.

See how LHR optimized check-in allocation

Cover of Copenhagen Optimization's complete guide to improving airport check-in allocation process

Download guide:

The complete guide on how to improve your check-in allocation process

To the benefit of passengers, airlines, handling agents, and the airport operation. Download our free guide to find out:

How a proactive approach will utilize the current check-in infrastructure in the best way possible.
How you can limit subjective debate among stakeholders as long as it is based on data and insights.
How the right tools can enable collaborative decision-making and increase passenger satisfaction by reducing flow bottlenecks.

Download guide

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Case Study

Boost co-operation through transparency

Better Check-in is a common operating platform, meaning you can provide access to airlines, handling agents, and other external stakeholders. By co-operating in a transparent environment, you can optimize future operations based on a fact-based performance evaluation. This makes it easier to build lasting goodwill and stronger business relationships.

The cloud-based SaaS solution is accessible through your preferred web browser and requires no on-site installation. All users can access the common use passenger processing system from anywhere, as well as see and work with the same updated plans.

See how CPH cut check-in demand by 26%

Case Study

Real-time queue management

Queue Vision analyzes passenger arrival numbers, showing you queues in flow and giving you a real-time understanding of bottlenecks so you can allocate additional counters or more queuing space. By minimizing the risk of queuing, you’re automatically improving the airport experience for your passengers.

The results from airports using Better Check-in are clear:

At Toronto Pearson, the optimization study identified a potential 18% reduction in demand for check-in counters.
In Stockholm Arlanda, Better Check-in has helped to reduce queues stretching into the queue area by 16%.

Read the Toronto Pearson case study

Better Virtual Queuing

Support flexibility through common use self-service

Better Check-in supports the implementation of common use self-service (CUSS) systems in airports. A CUSS system is a shared kiosk that can be used by several participating airlines to offer check-in to passengers in a single terminal without the need for ground staff.

Increased use of CUSS systems allows your airport to improve flexibility, planning, and allocation of check-in and bag-drop desks. By supporting the use of CUSS, Better Check-in helps to reduce unnecessary queueing and crowding in transit areas, ensuring a faster, easier passenger journey through your airport.

Optimize the passenger experience with Better Virtual Queuing

Better Check-in FAQ

What does Better Check-in do?

Better Check-in plans the use of airport check-in resources, including counter opening profiles, counter allocations and queue allocations. It helps airport teams match the check-in plan to passenger demand and operating rules. Its role is resource planning, not issuing boarding passes, changing bookings or replacing the airline system that completes a passenger's check-in transaction.

How does Better Check-in allocate counters to airlines?

Better Check-in uses passenger arrival profiles, processing times, and airline and handling-agent preferences to plan counter allocations. The aim is to match counters to the expected workload through the day. During scoping, airport planners and stakeholders should agree the operating rules and priorities that the allocation must reflect, including how conflicting requests will be resolved.

Can Better Check-in help identify queues spilling into terminal walkways?

Heathrow’s published Better Check-in case study describes using Queue Vision to assess queue capacity and potential spillover beyond designated queuing areas, using queue-area capacity and space-per-passenger assumptions. This helps planners examine whether the planned counter allocation has enough queuing space, rather than treating every available desk as equally usable capacity.

Can airports, airlines and ground handlers work from the same check-in plan?

Yes. Better Check-in allows airports to give airlines, handling agents and other stakeholders access to shared plans through a web browser.

Why should check-in counter planning consider baggage capacity?

Check-in planning should consider where accepted bags go next, because more open counters do not remove downstream baggage constraints. Copenhagen Optimization's Toronto Pearson case study assessed check-in and outbound baggage together before recommending capacity changes. For a Better Check-in project, review passenger and bag demand with both teams so the counter plan is assessed against the wider departure process.

How is Better Check-in different from Better Virtual Queuing?

Better Check-in plans counters and queue allocations around expected passenger arrivals. Better Virtual Queuing lets passengers reserve time slots, giving an airport a way to influence when they arrive at a process. The planning questions are different: how to serve the expected demand, and how to spread that demand over time. Choose the scope that addresses the actual bottleneck.

What should an airport measure when evaluating check-in allocation software?

Measure how the allocation affects both counter use and the surrounding terminal. Useful evaluation measures include peak counter demand, counter-hours, passenger waiting time, queue spillover and time spent replanning.

The Better Airport software suite - get to know us module by module

Better Airport is a cloud-based airport management platform that gives airports of all sizes a simpler way to run core operations. The core modules of the Better Airport suite can be mixed and matched to fit your operational needs.

Click on the modules below to learn more.