Airports are increasingly fast paced environments. Growing numbers of business travellers, budget holidaymakers and airport staff stream through terminal security every day to the retail spaces beyond.

Airlines have taken advantage of new technology to cater to this increasingly busy environment by creating self check in consuls and ARE is now piloting similar technology for food and beverage.

“People are increasingly tech-savvy,” says ARE Chief Executive Officer John Chapman. “You can use self check-in for your flights and self check-out for your groceries, why not do the same for snacks inside the terminal?”

ARE Information Technology Manager Michael Esposito has been working on the new fast-service kiosks since John Chapman raised the idea following a trip to the United States.

“We saw that no one else was really doing this in food service in Australia and so we partnered with a software company to work on a prototype,” he said.

The result of the collaboration is currently being trialled at Brisbane’s Central Station.

“I’d say we are about 99.9 per cent there; we are continually working on improvements to make the fast-service kiosks more customer friendly but the results we are getting are good,” Mr Esposito said.

The long-term goal for the kiosks would be to roll them out inside terminals, allowing customers to quickly pick up drinks and other pre-packaged items like sandwiches or salads.

“If all you want is a drink and roll, it can be very frustrating to be stuck behind someone with a complicated order - this will give people the opportunity to bypass that,” Mr Chapman said.

“We would expect it’s the kind of offering that would appeal to people who are time poor, the tech-savvy, airport staff and frequent flyers.

“Ultimately, it is about giving people choice – you can go to a counter and customise your order or get table service, or if you want something simple, you can use a fast service kiosk.”

In the longer term, the technology could have broader application allowing customers to place and pay for orders at multiple ARE outlets simultaneously, so that all they would need to do was collect the items from the shopfronts.

“Airports are forever changing,” Mr Chapman said. “What you find at the airport now is similar to what you find in an inner-city food court and there is no question that it will keep evolving.

“This sort of fast-service technology could well be the way of the future.”