Obstacles to the Adoption of Self-Service Technology at Cairo International Airport

Abstract

Due to the advancement and proliferation of information and communication technologies in today's world, self-service technology applications have become increasingly prevalent. Self-service technology (SST) is a technology that enables users to produce a service independent of direct service employee involvement. As more and more airlines have introduced technology-based self check-in services, it has become increasingly important to understand the factors affecting airline passengers’ attitudes toward this new form of check-in services and also their intentions. Therefore, this paper aims at investigating passengers' intention toward using check-in kiosks and exploring the obstacles to applying self-service check-in kiosks at Cairo International Airport. The field study is based on in-depth interviews with 20 Executive directors of Cairo International Airport, Station directors, employees of Egypt Air, and 30 passengers at Cairo International Airport. The results indicate that passengers are not commonly using Self-service check-in kiosks and had rejected the kiosks due to some obstacles. Finally, this study suggests that airlines should persuade passengers to acquire a more positive attitude toward the new check-in kiosks and should consider implementation of incentive strategies in encouraging passengers to adopt the self check-in service.