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.
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.
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