Southampton Airport chooses TM-L500A and TM-L90

Southampton Airport had been using traditional ATB2 boarding pass printers at its check-in desks for many years. However, the devices were unreliable, and printer downtime was threatening the efficiency of the airport’s check-in process. With budgets taking a hit from the related issue of high printer maintenance costs, Southampton Airport decided it was time to replace its specialist boarding pass printers with a more reliable and cost-effective solution.

Like Southampton, most airports had been tied to dedicated printing technology for two decades. The unique requirements of the airport environment dictated the use of specialist printing equipment, and this was usually expensive to buy and maintain.

However, the past two years have seen seismic changes in airport regulations and printing technology. With wallet-style boarding cards no longer required, and costly magnetic stripes replaced by simple 2D barcodes, airports are now free to abandon proprietary devices and take advantage of more cost-effective options.

One of the key trends in airport printing is the adoption of POS (point-of-sale) printers – thermal devices traditionally used in retail environments for receipts and labels. With their overall robustness and long lifecycles, POS printers are ideally suited to the tough demands of the airport environment.

Other benefits of POS printers include ease-of-use, super-fast print speeds and a small footprint. Most importantly, they are very affordable, and deliver a faster return on investment than proprietary peripherals.

For Southampton Airport, POS printers were the perfect solution. The airport tasked ESP, an IT support specialist for the travel industry, with finding the right model, and ESP selected the Epson TM-L90 – a thermal printer from Epson’s retail product line-up.

As the world’s number one POS printer manufacturer, Epson was the obvious choice. And with a MCBF (mean characters before failure) rate of 70 million, Epson’s TM-L90 offered the reliability Southampton needed.

In addition, the TM-L90 prints at speeds of up to 150mm/sec, and features jam-proof paper feeding with drop-in paper loading, helping airport staff serve passengers more quickly.

ESP felt assured that the Epson TM-L90 was the right choice, as it had seen the printer’s successful implementation at five other UK airports: Belfast International, Robin Hood, Humberside International, Leeds/Bradford and Durham Tees Valley.

Since the 20 TM-L90 printers were installed in 2011, ESP and Southampton Airport have been delighted with their reliability.

Southampton Airport wanted to replace its baggage tag printers at the same time as its boarding pass printers to further reduce maintenance costs.

Once again, ESP turned to Epson, this time selecting the Epson TM-L500A. The printer utilises Epson’s POS technology to provide Southampton with fast, highly reliable baggage tag printing in an ultra-compact package.

Created to meet growing demand for simpler, more affordable passenger processing technology, the TM-L500A incorporates a Windows® driver for easy printing from any Windows® application. However, the printer supports all airline communication protocols and IATA standards, allowing airports to make a gradual switch from legacy systems to modern platforms.

Many airports like Southampton have been able to implement POS printers and other non-specialist technology thanks to the introduction of a new standard called ‘CUPPS’ (common use passenger processing systems).

An open architecture software platform jointly developed by airlines, airports and hardware vendors, CUPPS enables modern printing technology to be used. It was born out of the need to reduce passenger processing costs.

In the process of defining CUPPS, similar situations and examples were studied, including UnifiedPOS - the POS technology standard that allows retailers to easily change from one manufacturer’s device to another.

As a member of the board of ARTS (Association for Retail Technology Standards), which founded the UnifiedPOS standard, Epson drew on its expertise in defining industry standards to help set the new passenger processing standards. The TM-L500A is at the forefront of the new generation of peripherals compatible with these standards.

Using its experience in POS, Epson is creating off-the-shelf solutions that make expensive, dedicated airport equipment a thing of the past. Southampton is one of many airports that will benefit from this passenger processing revolution.