Promotional article on behalf of Airportr
By: Ultan O'Brien, Chief Revenue Officer
Few parts of the air travel experience are as unpopular as checking a bag, with bag drops and baggage reclaim among travellers’ biggest frustrations.
But as more airports and airlines join our network, more travellers can check in their bags from home or a hotel, bypass bag-drop queues entirely, and travel to the airport without luggage, reclaiming the first and last hours of any trip.
For airlines and their passengers, the appeal of door-to-flight and flight-to-door baggage collection and delivery and the exponential impacts of network growth are demonstrated by Singapore Airlines’ upcoming expansion of our service into two new European markets, Frankfurt (FRA) and Zurich (ZRH). The move builds on years of joint success in the United Kingdom, and it shows how Baggage-as-a-Service grows once a carrier proves the model on one set of routes and chooses to extend it.
A partnership that scales from London into Europe’s DACH region
Singapore Airlines and Airportr have worked together in the UK market for several years. Over that time, the service has earned strong adoption among the airline's long-haul travellers - the customers who most value saving time on the first and last days of their journeys. Extending the partnership to Frankfurt and Zurich airports gives passengers who are Changi-bound or originating from Changi airport that same door-to-flight experience across two of Europe's busiest gateways. For passengers flying to Zurich, the service also extends beyond departure, enabling their bags to be delivered directly from their flight to their door.
The expansion also demonstrates the benefits of scale.
When a carrier like Singapore Airlines that already offers our service at one hub grows into new airports, the onboarding process is shortened. The technology layer is already in place, the logistics partner relationships are pre-established, and the handling processes are proven, so each new market opens faster than the one before it. This means that Singapore Airlines doesn’t need to start from zero in Germany or Switzerland; it simply builds on a partnership that already works very well.
Enthusiastic growth into new destinations reflects Singapore Airlines’ commitment to off-airport baggage services. The airline is trialling a new off-airport check-in service from selected city-centre hotels at its home Changi hub, for example.
Why the Singapore Airlines passenger fits the Baggage-as-a-Service model
Singapore Airlines’ passenger mix makes it an ideal partner for our services. The airline includes checked bags in every fare class, so most of its passengers travel with hold luggage. That drives a high participation rate; among Singapore Airlines customers, attachment of the Airportr service runs 30% higher than at other mature full-service carriers. And that’s partially a function of who flies with Singapore:
· Business travellers make up 6% of Airportr's Singapore Airlines users, twice the 3% average across other airlines, and business travellers are the group that places the highest value on a service that hands back time.· 18% of Singapore Airlines passengers who use our service live outside the markets where Airportr operates, against a 10% average elsewhere. Most of our customers use the product in their home market; Singapore Airlines passengers carry the habit abroad, using it in business destinations like London, and soon Frankfurt and Zurich. The demand travels with the passenger, which is what makes new markets worth opening.
This dynamic pays off in terms of passenger satisfaction, too. Singapore Airlines and Airportr reached a 93 Net Promoter Score (NPS) in the UK.
The network effect: One successful market makes the next one easier
In addition to the impact on NPS and passenger satisfaction, Singapore Airlines' expansion into Frankfurt and Zurich illustrates the economics of Baggage-as-a-Service. Once an airline proves the model in one market, the next is easier to open, as Lufthansa’s recent expansion also shows. The supply chain, technology and operating processes already exist, reducing the work required to add new airports. Each addition makes the service relevant to more passengers and more compelling to more airlines, creating a network effect that accelerates further growth.
For passengers, the benefit is simpler to describe. The more cities that offer Airportr’s door-to-flight baggage service, the more journeys begin and end without a bag drop queue at departure or a carousel wait on arrival.
A traveller in any major city on the network can have their bags collected before the journey, delivered directly to the flight, and returned at the destination. And because Singapore Airlines is affiliated with other airlines that support the Airportr service (including the Lufthansa Group) through the Star Alliance, passengers can complete one leg of an interlined journey with a participating partner carrier and complete their trip with Singapore Airlines without interrupting their hands-free baggage experience.
For example, a passenger can book a trip from London Gatwick to Geneva to Changi through Singapore Airlines, and even if Lufthansa operates the first segment, they can still utilise the Airportr service.
The network effect for airports
For airports, the network effect means less peak-time processing pressure and increased baggage capacity when it most matters. As passenger volumes continue to climb, moving bags off the terminal floor before passengers even arrive eases the demand on check-in areas and the baggage processing systems behind them. Zurich airport illustrates the challenge. The airport handled a record 32.6 million passengers in 2025, with daily volumes exceeding 120,000 for the first time, and invested CHF 716 million in infrastructure that year, including a refurbishment of its baggage sorting system.
Why more carriers are investing in baggage
And then there’s the topline impact. Airportr creates an enhanced ancillary revenue stream for airlines like Singapore, where passengers pay for our door-to-flight service, offsetting the cost the airline carries for each checked bag in time, labour and materials. At a time when ancillary sales are projected to represent 14% of total revenue in 2026 (up 5.5% YOY to $145 billion, according to IATA), introducing new, high-attachment ancillary services is a key performance advantage for airlines.
Seven in ten travellers say the availability of our service prompts them to check a bag, or check additional bags they otherwise wouldn’t have. That propensity turns convenience into measurable ancillary demand for airlines.
The operational case is just as strong. Mishandled baggage costs the industry around $6.3 billion per year, with 24 million bags delayed, lost or damaged, according to SITA's 2026 Baggage IT Insights. Airports and airlines are answering with automation, AI and individual bag tracking, and almost all that work happens airside. We handle the part those systems never touch: the door-to-airport leg, where a bag is collected before it reaches the terminal at all.
A frequent long-haul flyer who starts and ends a trip without luggage friction has one more reason to book the same airline again. These travellers usually assess an airline by the parts of the journey that go wrong, and baggage sits near the top of that list. Removing it as a source of stress gives the airline's most valuable passengers a reason to come back, which is the retention value more premium carriers now look for in a baggage product.
Singapore Airlines is building baggage advantage on the ground
Expanding with Airportr into Frankfurt and Zurich is part of Singapore Airlines’ larger commitment to improving the baggage process for its passengers. At its Changi home base, Changi Airport Group has put driverless tractors into live airside operation, moving passenger bags between terminals after a year of trials. Along with the European expansion of the Airportr partnership, this shows that Singapore Airlines treats baggage as a point of difference,
which makes the carrier another credible ambassador, alongside Lufthansa and several other forward-thinking airlines, for Baggage-as-a-Service and its ongoing growth.
Your airline can offer passengers the same door-to-flight and flight-to-door convenience while opening a premium ancillary stream and easing pressure on baggage operations.
Learn what our network could mean for your routes; contact our team.
