British Airways has teamed up with AirPortr to introduce new fast bag drop areas for travellers flying from Heathrow Terminal 5.
The first drop-off points are on Heathrow Express train platforms, where teams from AirPortr will seal, secure, and check in bags to allow customers to travel bag-free straight to security.
Bags will then be ready for collection at the reclaim at their destination.
Customers can also choose to book luggage collections from their home address by a vetted delivery driver, from £19.
Once collected, bags are sealed and monitored throughout the delivery process.
Passengers can track their luggage online and will receive digital bag tag receipts.
Tom Stevens, British Airways’ Director of Customer Experience, said: “We have been busy investigating and trialling ways to ensure that we can offer our customers the smoothest journey through the airport possible.
“We believe this contactless initiative with AirPortr allows our customers to avoid baggage check-in queues and move through the airport without the hassle of carrying luggage, as well as offering the reassurance that we are doing everything we can to ensure the safe delivery of their bags from doorstep to destination.”
BA already offers a special twilight baggage drop service the night before travel from Terminal 5, when customers are able to deliver their bags to the airport terminal between 4pm and 9pm the day before they travel.
It is also trialling new intelligent queuing technology from Qmatic that enables customers to virtually queue at check-in by pre-booking their slot time in advance of arriving at the airport.
