Check-in kiosks continue to gain popularity

Indianapolis airport is undergoing a series of upgrades and additions right now, and as 9news Indianapolis reports, some of those include replacing more check-in counters with interactive kiosks:

When the new passenger terminal at Indianapolis airport opens in 2008, the front lobby will have more room for self-serve ticketing kiosks - and much less space for traditional ticket counters.

Though construction on the $1.1 billion project already has begun, planners are making late design changes to the ticketing hall to accommodate the emergence of the electronic kiosks. Instead of having long walls of counter space, the new terminal will contain four ticketing "islands" in the center of the 150,000-square-foot ticket hall, project director John Kish said.

Initially designed to hold 96 ticket agents, those islands now will feature mostly electronic kiosks, perhaps as many as 150. It remains unclear what the ratio of ticket agents to kiosks will be.

Cited as both a cost-saving and customer service measure (as some carriers including Continental estimate that up to 85% of their passengers check in via kiosks), the airport says that customers are -- perhaps for once -- not upset by changes that reduce the amount of human contact. I don't know about you, but when I get to the airport, I want to get the ticketing/security/check-in process done as quickly as possible, and 95% of the time, I can get everything done quickly and easily at a kiosk. You can't beat that kind of convenience, and it's a welcome improvement at harried and con