Alaska Airlines & eKiosk Team Up on the Information Runway

Seattle-based Alaska Airlines (www.alaskaair.com) and Illinois-based eKiosk Corporation (www.ekioskdotcom.com)announced earlier this week that the two companies will begin early next month to deploy high-speed kiosk Internet workstations at Alaska Airlines Board Rooms. ActionFax, an eKiosk division, will also install Public Touch Screen Fax Kiosks into all of Alaska Airlines’ Board Rooms.

Five Board Rooms in Anchorage, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco and Los Angeles are scheduled to receive multiple kiosks.

eKiosks are stand alone Internet workstations that feature wireless, high-speed broadband connectivity. Board Room members will be able to connect their laptops, notebooks, palmtops, and other handheld devices to the Internet through an eKiosk’s USB, RJ-11 modem, RJ-45 data, or infrared port.

“Everything in our clubs is built around our members’ needs and convenience,” says Ann Ardizzone, Managing Director of Marketing Programs for Alaska Airlines. “Business travelers must perform complex tasks on the
Internet, including Web-based business transactions. An eKiosk will allow them to do all this and more,” says Ardizzone.

The first ten minutes of Internet browsing on the eKiosk terminals will be sponsored, so travelers will be able to check their email or browse the Web at no cost,” says Dennis Gelb, eKiosk’s Vice President, Airport Division. “All services provided within the Alaska Airlines Web page are also free of charge at all
times.”

According to Gelb, eKiosk terminals offer a wide variety of other services for nominal fees including Microsoft Office applications, extended browsing, video email, text email and text to any fax number.

“Each unit is fully equipped with a telephone handset, audio headphone jack, speakers, video camera, microphone, a floppy disc drive, and a FlashCard drive that reads IBM Microdrive discs,” says Gelb.