Products

L-DCS

Local Departure Control System

Introduction and Overview

L-DCS is an advanced, fully featured Departure Control System aimed directly at the Low Cost Carrier and point-to-point airline market. Far cheaper to own and operate than traditional DCS offerings, L-DCS has full Check-in and Boarding capabilities and is certified on all the major CUTE platforms, including those from SITA and ARINC.

L-DCS is the most widely used, popular Local Departure Control System available, being used to handle 10's of millions of passengers every year for airlines of all sizes, including many of the major charter carriers. A tried and tested product, from small regional airports to some of the largest and busiest in the world, you can be sure that L-DCS will work for you.

With its intuitive, easy to operate Windows GUI interface and support for CUSS and Web check-in, L-DCS is driving down agent training times, reducing check-in errors and slashing passenger handling costs.

Newsflash! Fast Bag Drop Automation!

Self check-in is the primary focus for most airlines, with Home, Kiosk and even Mobile Device check-in becoming increasingly common and helping to reduce queues at the counter.

To maximise the benefit of self check-in for those passengers with hold baggage, L-DCS significantly speeds up operations at your bag drop, automatically assigning flights and retrieving passenger records simply by scanning the presented boarding pass. With support for both 2D barcodes and legacy ATB2 stock, L-DCS can support your operation.

Newsflash! L-DCS Passengers Help Themselves!

Keeping abreast of the ever-changing requirements of the passenger handling industry is a challenge that Damarel are proud to take part in. Underlining our commitment to make sure our customers, and their passengers, enjoy a first-class check in experience, Damarel are pleased to announce two significant new additions to L-DCS:

• Web Check-In. Passengers can now check in from the comfort of their own home via the Internet using our new 3 Step Check-In process. Simple and secure, 3 Step Check-In provides passengers with the benefits usually reserved for the large schedule airlines.
• CUSS Kiosk Check-In. The new self-service application allows passengers to check in through Common Use kiosks at the airport.

These exciting new additions will help ease congestion at crowded airports, speeding passengers through to departure halls with the minimal amount of fuss.

Newsflash! Busiest Year Ever for L-DCS

L-DCS has been at the forefront of the low-cost airline revolution, providing handling agents and airports with the most cost-effective automated check-in available. By delivering substantial savings over the more traditional host systems, L-DCS has helped our customers retain their competitive advantage while delivering a first class service.

With over 10 million passengers checking in through L-DCS in the UK alone last year, and many millions more throughout the world, more people than ever are benefiting from this world class system.

Damarel provides business solutions for Airport Operations.

Passenger check-in and boarding can be an expensive process. Links to conventional airline-owned mainframe computers incur significant operating costs, and the information exchanged with the computer often travels half way around the world; yet nearly all the information required for check-in and boarding is already available locally at the airport.

Damarel's Local Departure Control System, L-DCS, operates as a standalone check-in and boarding system. All the information required for the passenger handling process is stored and accessed from a local database maintained directly by the application.

Links to external DCS systems such as those operated by the major airlines are therefore not required.

This means that the operator of the Local DCS system is in total control of all the operating costs.

L-DCS makes use of modern technology and local processing to register passengers rapidly at check-in and to ensure simple and effective reconciliation of the passengers boarding at the gate.

Installed at major airports around the world, handling millions of passengers every year, L-DCS is the professional product of choice for Local Departure Control Systems.

L-DCS reduces training costs

Damarel's Local DCS has a clear, easy-to-use, graphical interface that simplifies the job of the check-in agent, without compromising the ability to perform more complex tasks.

It can take several weeks to train staff on a traditional host DCS - a costly exercise that must be repeated for all new systems. Because the graphical user interface built in to L-DCS is so easy to use training times and therefore costs are drastically reduced, and the agent is less likely to make mistakes.

L-DCS users report that typically within 2 hours of starting training, agents are able to check-in passengers at the desk.

L-DCS speeds the boarding process

The use of ATB2 and 2D bar code technology in the boarding process significantly cuts the time taken to board the aircraft. No more manual coupon counts, no more manual revenue protection checks, no more manual registration of passengers.

In practice, use of automatic boarding techniques has been shown to cut the time to board a fully loaded 747 from 40 minutes to 15 minutes. Reduced turn-around times provide ample revenue and cost-reduction opportunities.

L-DCS provides security

Check-in systems play an ever-increasing role in aviation security, and built in to L-DCS are some of the most advanced systems available, including:

• Fully certified APIS and APIS+ (Advanced Passenger Information System) - including both US and UN/EDIFCACT for all regions
• TSA Approved Selectee and Special Watch Lists
• BRS interfaces for baggage security
• Aviation authority mandated check-in procedures 

With these, L-DCS provides the most reliable and secure Local DCS system available.

Functional Highlights

Check-In

L-DCS Check-In is the part of the system that deals with acceptance of passengers and their bags. This includes production of boarding passes and bag tags.

The majority of L-DCS Check In functions are performed on a single screen - the Main Check-In Screen.

Multiple flights may be checked-in through a single desk with the agent hot-keying between them.

Passenger Handling

Facilities provided include:

• REC and NOREC Check-in for individual passenger or passenger groups.
• Seat Preassignment.
• SSRs and Frequent Traveller information.
• Full Passenger and Baggage Editing functions.
  

Seating

A graphical seat map display shows the up to date status of check in and boarding, along with the facilities available on the aircraft.

The seat map display is always kept completely up to date across the network so agents can see the current status at a glance.

Bag Tags and Boarding Passes

L-DCS drives the latest airport technology, and provides:

• On-demand bag tags with the Airline's own logo, conforming to IATA Resolution 740.
• Facility for pre-printed or handwritten (manual) tags.
• Multi-sector bag tags for check-in of through baggage.
• Sequenced ATB2 boarding passes including the Airline's own logo and encoding of magnetic Strip, conforming to IATA Resolution 722.
• Full support for 2D barcodes (IATA PDF417), including printing, Fast Bag Drop and Gate Boarding

Flight Editing

• Capability to import booked passenger lists in IATA PNL/ADL format automatically through an interface to the SITA Type B Network.
• Generation of IATA formatted post-departure messages such as PSM, TPM, SOM etc. during flight closeout processing.
• Hand off relevant passenger and baggage data to third party systems
• Planning system for automated weight and balance.

Automated Boarding

L-DCS Automated Boarding is the gate application responsible for controlling the boarding and reconciliation of passengers.

Use of ATB2 and 2D bar coded boarding passes and boarding gate readers leads to fast, positive reconciliation. Running totals and missing passenger lists allow agents to continuously monitor boarding progress from any workstation, giving a truly integrated Local DCS solution.

Weight and Balance

For those operations that also require Load Planning, L-DCS is fully integrated with LodeStone, Damarel's browser based Weight and Balance System, providing a complete flight handling solution.

If you already have a 3rd party system, L-DCS will also support a database-to-database transfer of information, eliminating the rekeying of data.

External Interfaces

L-DCS provides a number of standard and customisable interfaces to external systems. This feature enables easy integration with existing airport information systems, thereby safeguarding investment.

The available Local DCS interfaces include:

• IATA Type B message handling. This facility allows Local DCS to send and receive a variety of standard IATA messages.
• Email interface for IATA messages, dramatically reducing Type B transmission costs.
• Reconciliation Systems. Local DCS incorporates feeds for external BRS systems to allow for faster and more accurate reconciliation of flights.
• Flight Information Systems. Local DCS provides for links to airport FIDS systems, providing operational flight data as required.
• BSM Messaging for delivery of baggage information, including supported links for SITA CUBES, ARINC BagLink and Alstec SAC.
  

Architecture

Technical information for L-DCS, the advanced Local Departure Control System.

• Based on modern 32-bit Windows® (NT/2000/XP platform)
• Client/server application. All data is stored locally in an ORACLE® Relational Database. (Oracle may be run on a Novell, Unix or Windows® NT server).
• Communicates across standard local area networks.
• Makes use of ATB2 and 2D bar code technology.
• Has a modular construction that can be tailored for a precise business fit.
• Part of an integrated airport solution with other Damarel or third party CUTE platform products such as baggage sortation and reconciliation systems.
• Certified for use on the major CUTE platforms, including ARINC MUSE/NT and iMUSE and SITA CUTE/NT and APC.
• Comprehensive system management functions.
• Runs 24 hours a day 7 days a week with minimal computer operations supervision.
• Supported and diagnosed remotely.
  

To discuss how Damarel's Local Departure Control System or other products can help your operation, please contact us by phone +44 (0)1252  783787 or email This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it