KAL introduces self-service bag drop for domestic flights

South Korea's flagship carrier Korean Air Lines Co. is the first airline in the country to adopt self-service bag drop on domestic flights.

The company said on Thursday that it would start a self-servce bag drop at Gimhae Airport in Busan for the first time among domestic airlines. The self-service bag drop, by which passengers check their baggage without the help of airline staff, is currently in operation at Incheon International Airport only.

With the introduction of this service, the entire boarding process for domestic flights has become passenger-initiated by linking kiosks, web/mobile, and auto check-in.

Those eligible for use for this service are passengers who have a valid ID card (national ID card or driver's license) or pre-registered passengers with biometric information (palm vein) among those who have been issued with a boarding pass through self-check-in (web/mobile, kiosk, auto check-in).

Passengers can put their baggage on the self-service bag drop machine, attach the tag printed after the procedures such as boarding pass scan, identity verification, and a weight check are over, and send it. The recognized baggage is moved by the conveyor belt and finally loaded onto the aircraft for which the passenger is boarding.

Korean Air plans to expand the service to other domestic airports by improving the service after piloting it for about six months, starting with Gimhae International Airport.

Write to Ik-Hwan Kim at lovepen@hankyung.com