IT INNOVATION
Time for a new approach? Iyad Hindiyeh, Amadeus Airport IT’s senior vice president for strategy and marketing, considers some of the integration challenges and opportunities facing airports today.
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irports are extremely complex operational environments with many different applications that need to share information in order to deliver a safe and efficient service, therefore the integration of the IT systems governing those complex processes has always been important. The trouble is, airports have often inherited large numbers of different systems from different vendors, without clear responsibility from any one vendor for the functioning of the entire system. This has meant airports have evolved to become system integrators, stitching these systems together in order to achieve the outcomes they need. But airports aren’t IT companies, rather they provide the infrastructure that makes moving people from A to B possible. With the number of one-to-one technical integrations between these disparate systems increasing year after year and the expectations travellers have for a smooth airport experience also sharpening, the burden placed on airport IT teams is becoming immense. Perhaps worse still, a complex patchwork of manual integration can never be perfect, leading to outdated data populating the systems that co-ordinate the actions of different airport stakeholders, ultimately limiting the effectiveness of operations. Connecting to airlines is a case in point. It’s the airline Departure Control System that acts as a single source of the truth for passenger information and supports the provision of services at the airport. For too long legacy approaches to technology have overcomplicated this situation, with each airline being asked to maintain network connections to each airport it serves. In fact, for an airline to propose a simple update to its departure control system at the airport requires a lengthy certification process to ensure the change works for all airlines and hardware providers involved in the common use set-up. Waiting three months for a simple software update is holding the industry back. There are several reasons airports need a new approach:
The problem has been that shifting an airline’s passenger handling infrastructure from terminal A, to terminal B, is far slower than it should be. Legacy networks take in the region of three to six months to provision and this needs to be organised with each airline the airport wishes to relocate. The same problem occurs again if the airport needs to scale back up to handle more passengers. Throughout the COVID-19 fluctuations many airports have lacked agility.
Slow innovation The historic model has slowed the pace of innovation across the industry, with an on-site approach to IT that requires airports and airlines to focus on ‘keeping the IT lights on’. If an IT team is focused on managing on-site applications and provisioning legacy network connections to airlines, then they aren’t free to innovate with technology. We know from conversations with our customers that most airport CIOs are keen to shift the balance from ‘maintenance’ to ‘innovation’ by trying new technologies like Artificial Intelligence and the Internet of Things. The trouble is that maintaining and working with a patchwork of legacy systems saps time and hampers the deployment of emerging technologies.
New passenger services Airlines are keen to roll out new passenger services at the airport so that check-in and self-service infrastructure can do more than simply administer the basics. One such example is being able to accept a wide variety of payment methods at check-in and bag drop, which caters to passenger needs and helps airlines drive ancillary revenues.
Biometrics are coming Reduced agility COVID-19 has highlighted how slow the traditional approach to IT can be for airports. If traffic volumes fall significantly then it’s logical to consolidate airline operations into a single terminal to reduce costs.
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AIRPORT WORLD/ISSUE 3, 2021
It is likely that the use of biometrics will gradually expand across every passenger touchpoint from kerb-to-gate. This means hundreds or possibly thousands of cameras embedded at check-in desks, kiosks, auto bag drop units, security, e-gates, lounges and boarding gates.
