At a time when airline passengers are facing record flight delays and baggage mishandling worldwide, hope is on the horizon. Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport is promoting a new vision of travellers lining up at self-service kiosks where they can check in, tag their bags, drop them into luggage chutes, select their seats and print out their boarding passes, all by themselves.

Imagine an airport where there are no visible employees; the only people are passengers. The technology was showcased at Check-in 2007, a convention of airport and airline officials at Las Vegas, which offered tantalising glimpses of the automated future of air travel, with fast-moving check-in lines and luggage tracked by radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags.

In just five years, say the proponents of this new vision, there will be few if any counters handled by humans at airports. Instead, machines will help keep lines shorter and process passengers faster. "It will be highly efficient," Marcel van Beek, Schipol airport's programme manager for passenger processes said, shortly after unveiling the plan. His presentation got a standing ovation from a packed conference room at the convention.

In the Amsterdam model, a machine would scan a passenger's passport and then show the flight information on a display screen. The passenger would then be able to select a seat, print out luggage tags, and attach them to the bags before placing them in a chute next to the self-service kiosk.

Each bag tag will contain a tiny radio transponder resembling a postage stamp, which can be read several feet away by a special reader, enabling the luggage to be tracked more accurately. The airline would know immediately, for instance, whether a bag was placed a particular flight or not.

Schiphol airport officials expect that by 2015, about 90 per cent of its passengers would be using such self-service machines, which would enable the airport to handle a projected 50 per cent increase in travellers, while reducing waiting time in queues by 10 per cent. It would also solve the Dutch problem of a workforce shortage. Schiphol officials expect many airport workers to retire over the next five years.

Self-service makes sense for passengers too. They become less dependent on humans for common transactions such as buying groceries, borrowing books from the library, or checking in at airports! Dutch carrier KLM is working closely with Schiphol on the new check-in process.

Over 300 airline and airport officials gathered for the two-day conference, which ended on Friday 7 September. One of the prime topics of discussion was exploring new ways to get passengers through airports faster.

The conference comes at a time when flight delays and mishandled baggage are at their worst since the US government began tracking flight arrivals and departures in 1995. Airport officials say they can't prevent flight delays, but that they can do something about easing travellers' frustrations with clogged airports, lost luggage and endless check-in queues.

About 20 companies showcased new machines and devices that their makers say will help keep the check-in lines moving. One was a kiosk that could be installed off-site and enable passengers to check in and print boarding passes for all major airlines. At present, the few self-service kiosks available serve only one or two airlines.

Another demonstrated computer software that could enable cell phone users to receive e-mail that contained an image of a bar code, similar to the ones on boarding passes. The passenger could then pass the cell phone under an image-reading device to check in and board the plane.

The technology is presently being tested in Canada, but can't be used in the US. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) says passengers travelling from US airports require a paper boarding pass.

Airport and airline officials privately say that no matter what they do, passengers still face long lines waiting to pass through TSA's systems. But the TSA has begun to collaborate more closely with airport officials. Last year, it allowed domestic passengers to check-in bags off-site, for the first time after 9/11.

Passengers using FlyAway bus shuttles to Los Angeles Airport can check in up to two bags for $5 at three off-site facilities, where they can also get airline boarding passes. They can then go directly to security and on to the boarding gates.

Meanwhile, their bags are taken to an airport handling facility, where TSA security screeners inspect them before the bags are loaded onto the plane. But at present, this facility is only available to passengers flying within the United States.