Japan Airlines introduces robot customer service agent

TOKYO: Japan Airlines has begun trials of a multilingual, humanoid robot customer service agent at Tokyo's Haneda airport.

Called Nao, the French made robot is 60 cm tall, and will provide passengers with flight schedule information and current weather conditions at flight destinations, travel website Travelmole quoting Japan Airlines said.

Nao can speak Japanese, English and Chinese and also answer queries about airport facilities and check-in times, Japan Airlines was quoted as saying by travel website Travelmole.

"The response was faster than I thought and it could also easily pick up what I was saying," Travelmole quoted a passenger, university student Soma Yuki, 22.

Nao's initial trial run will end tomorrow and will be again deployed at the JAL departure counter from February 16-18.

JAL said it will assess Nao's performance at the end of the trial period before deciding whether to make it a permanent member of the airline's customer service team.