Swissport is speeding-up the air freight handling processes at its cargo warehouses by introducing newly developed self-services kiosks which would reduce waiting times and increases the quality of the air freight documentation.

The Chinese-owned cargo handling firm said the global initiative will roll out across all its core cargo stations within the next 24 months starting from the Swissport operation at Brussels Airport and at the Amsterdam Airport.

The Switzerland-based firm said this digital innovation will reduce waiting times, increase the quality of the air freight documentation and ultimately aim to raise customer satisfaction.

“Our new kiosks support the paperless eFreight initiative by IATA and at the same time accelerate the import and export processes for our customers significantly”, says Hendrik Leyssens, vice president global operations cargo at Swissport International, noting that truck drivers will directly benefit from minimal wait times and faster turnarounds.

Swissport said after the driver register and identify at the kiosk with an official ID or passport, they can scan all relevant air freight documentation. They will then receive a text message with the information at which truck gate they must drop their cargo.

Shipping information can also be entered via a Kiosk-Web Portal by the forwarders directly. Customers could also link their IT systems via an API interface to Swissport’s database.

"The new system increases efficiency and security. During the documents check, the kiosk system, which is connected to the EU Regulated Agent database, also checks the security status of every shipment," it added.