Air Canada is hoping to soon have a system in place to allow passengers to tag their own luggage at electronic check-in kiosks.

The airline's president and CEO, Montie Brewer, said the system would save time.

He said he expects travellers to embrace the idea the same way bank customers did with automated teller machines 20 years ago.

Under the system, travellers would enter their booking reference number at a kiosk and print off the tags. The luggage, with tags attached, would then be taken to a conveyer belt for the X-ray machine.

Pending approval by Transport Canada, the plan could be in effect by the end of 2008.

"It's for customer service that they're doing this and to lessen the time and the cost," said Lucy Vignola, a spokesperson at Transport Canada. "But we just need to make sure that security isn't compromised and that the baggage checking is still going on properly."

"Our main focus isn't to see so much how it works for passengers, but more, is everybody meeting our security regulations," she said.

Trials are already underway in Vancouver, Montreal and Toronto. The self-serve option will later be available in Ottawa, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg and Halifax.

WestJet said it plans to introduce its own self-tagging luggage program in mid-2008.

Photograph: Air Canada passengers can currently use electronic kiosks, like these seen in the picture, to check in and generate boarding passes.