Delta Air Lines to make its check-in process quicker

ATLANTA - Delta Air Lines plans to spend $30 million to speed up its passenger check-in process at 81 airports by expanding its use of ATM-like kiosks and phone banks connected to reservation agents. <br> <br> The Atlanta-based airline has said it hopes to have the system in place by this spring. <br> <br> Delta&#39;s director of airport strategy and services at Hartsfield Atlanta International Airport, Rob Maruster, said it will look nontraditional. <br> <br> He said the lobby will still have check-in agents behind counters, but no areas for travelers to line up. Delta officials expect to cut waiting times to less than two minutes, even during peak times. <br> <br> Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky, Delta&#39;s second-largest hub, will be one of the first of the 81 airports to receive the makeover and the first Delta hub to undergo the transformation. <br> <br> Delta also has hubs in Atlanta, Dallas-Fort Worth and Salt Lake City. <br> <br> By late this summer, Delta plans to install scores of telephone banks, double the number of self-serve kiosks to 800 and retool its curbside terminals to allow skycaps to handle more tasks. <br> <br> Delta plans to boost the number of kiosks at the Atlanta airport from 32 to about 100 by late spring. <br> <br> The kiosks, which Delta and other airlines have rolled out gradually in recent years, allow passengers to check themselves in, pick seats and print boarding passes. <br> <br> The changes are also aimed at helping Delta cut costs. The airline announced it would cut seven-thousand to eight-thousand jobs this spring, on top of ten-thousand job cuts after the September eleventh terrorist attacks.