SWISS to automate passenger boarding count
In the future, flight attendants will no longer have to press a button to count passengers boarding an aircraft – artificial intelligence is set to take over passenger counting at SWISS. Cleaning robots will also be able to answer (some) questions at Zurich Airport.
Swiss International Air Lines (SWISS) will be using cameras to count passengers on short-haul flights from the third quarter of 2024, it announced on Thursday. Instead of the cabin crew, the software from Berlin start-up Vion AI will then record the number of people boarding the plane. From the fourth quarter of next year, the system, which is based on artificial intelligence (AI), will also be used on long-haul flights, according to the press release.
+ Artificial intelligence: an opportunity or a risk?
According to SWISS, the new process will make boarding faster and more efficient. The airline emphasises that it will comply with data protection regulations and that the recordings will be deleted after the passenger count. SWISS completed a three-month trial of the system at the end of October.
But new technology is not only being used for boarding. At Zurich Airport, the two robots “Zulu” and “Charlie” (the names stand for the letters Z and C in the NATO phonetic alphabet) are now responsible for cleaning large floor areas in the check-in and shopping areas.
The two machines are intended to ensure cleanliness and thus relieve the 300-strong cleaning team, according to a press release. They will also be able to answer a prepared set of questions from passengers. The test phase with the two metal cleaning assistants will run until at least the end of February 2024.
This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles. You can find them here.
If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.ch.
External Content
Your subscription could not be saved. Please try again.
Almost finished… We need to confirm your email address. To complete the subscription process, please click the link in the email we just sent you.
More
Why Switzerland is among the ten fastest-warming countries in the world
More
In Switzerland four out of ten people have a migrant background – who are they?
More
Suicides in Switzerland quadruple among older people
More
French gangs target luxury cars in Switzerland
More
Renewed controversy in Switzerland over US fighter jets – explained
In compliance with the JTI standards
More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.