In an announcement designed to blow the top of the industry, Epson America, Inc. spread the news that the company had won the trust of five United Kingdom airports, who were already to work with Epson as a leader in the printing and scanning industry. The five United Kingdom airports are the Belfast International Airport (BFS), the Robin Hood Airport (DSA), the Humberside International Airport (HUY), the Leeds/Bradford Airport (LBA), and the Durham Tees Valley Airport (MME). All five airports have agreed to use Epson's boarding pass printer, the TM-L90 single station thermal printer, for all boarding pass printing needs.
Epson and its thermal printer were chosen due to Epson's ability to guarantee and deliver operational efficiency when compared with others in the industry and promised cost reduction compared with printing traditional boarding passes on the old proprietary printers used in the past. The Epson solutions also made more sense with the new compliance regulations in which the traditional wallet-style boarding card was no longer needed. This change in compliance regulations allowed the five airports to shop for more cost-effective options with printing, without losing reliability. The Epson machines were also going to be an easy integration into the existing computer systems and data structure for the airports.
The five United Kingdom combined see over 2 million passengers traveling through their gates each year to a total of over 241 destinations. The change to the new printers began in October of 2009 and is expected to finish by September of 2010 and is being handled by Servisair who comes with fifty years and more of industry experience in providing aviation ground services.
Such a massive turnover in equipment is a large signal that the airline industry is changing focus to a mass adoption of POS printers and enjoying the higher rate of return on the investment then they could achieve with the proprietary printers and peripherals that were used before. With the POS printers history for longer life-cycle, their ease of use, and the overall robustness of the machines, the shift means a better outcome for the airports willing to take a chance on Epson's machines.