Airport World, Issue 5, 2019

Theme: IT Innovation Airport report: Bogotá Special report: SMART Airports review Plus: People-friendly design & branding

In the spotlight: IT Innovation Volume 24 – Issue 5, 2019 www.aci.aero

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Airport World Editor Joe Bates +44 (0)1276 476582 joe@airport-world.com Design, Layout & Production Mark Draper +44 (0)208 707 2743 mark@airport-world.com Sales Directors Jonathan Lee +44 (0)208 707 2743 jonathan@airport-world.com Gary Allman +44 (0) 7854 239 426 gary@aviationmedia.aero Advertising Manager Andrew Hazell +44 (0)208 384 0206 andrewh@airport-world.com Subscriptions subscriptions@aviationmedia.aero Managing Director Jonathan Lee +44 (0)208 707 2743 jonathan@aviationmedia.aero

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Airport World is published six times a year for the members of ACI. The opinions and views expressed in Airport World are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect an ACI policy or position.

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The IT crowd Airport World editor, Joe Bates, reflects on the enabling power of new technology at the same time as not forgetting the importance of the human touch in air travel.

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f I am being perfectly honest here, given the choice, I would always prefer to communicate with someone face-to-face or by telephone rather than through the use of technology, which clearly is the preferred choice of doing things today, including for many airports and airlines.

Indeed, when I booked a family holiday a few months ago, I did everything online and didn’t speak to anyone during the entire process. How fantastic and convenient I thought, until I had a query about a payment taken from my account, which took 10 days to resolve because there was literally no telephone number on the website for me to call!

Putting things right involved me sending five emails and filling in several forms for them to “investigate my grievance” – a process not helped by the fact that the airline blamed the travel website for the error and the travel website blamed the airline – when surely a simple phone call to someone explaining the issue could have sorted everything out in in five minutes?

In marked contrast to this long and complicated process, while on holiday, I wanted to hire a wheelchair for my dad, and all it took was one phone call to the local tourist board and five minutes later there was a wheelchair ready for me to pick up.

What did I learn from this experience? Well, apart from the obvious about how technology is transforming the way we travel and live our daily lives, it showed me that however brilliant and enabling new technology can be, we must not lose sight of the importance of human interaction in the travel process.

Terri Morrissey and Dr Richard Plenty actually touch on this point and provide their thoughts on artificial intelligence and robots in the workplace in their regular ‘People matters’ column on page 50.

Anyway, focusing on all the good things about new technology, this ‘IT innovation’ themed issue contains a number of articles showing how the world’s airport continue to be pioneers in terms of the trialling, development and adoption of new technology.

ACI World’s former head of passenger and airport services, Arturo García-Alonso, sets the scene by looking at what new technologies are on the horizon and what we can expect to be commonplace at airports in 10 to 15 years’ time.

We also find out more about how Baku’s Heydar Aliyev International Airport has become the first gateway to move its entire operations to the cloud; Toronto Pearson’s efforts to improve passenger flows; and how Formula 1 techniques are being used to fast track better airport design.

We turn the spotlight on the latest autonomous vehicle trials at airports; learn about how GIS mapping technology has benefitted Reno-Tahoe International Airport; and consider whether the time is right to modernise today’s mostly manual and fragmented cargo distribution processes by going digital.

Elsewhere in the magazine you can read about the importance of building people friendly terminals that enhance passenger journeys; Charlotte Douglas’ stormwater management solution; and the creation of an innovative new brand experience at Orlando Sanford.

Our main airport feature is on Bogotá–El Dorado, where OPAIN CEO, Álavaro González, tells us more about his gateway’s future development plans and how he is looking forward to Colombia’s capital city hosting the upcoming ACI-Latin America & Caribbean (ACI-LAC) Regional Assembly, Conference and Exhibition.

We also hear from ACI World director general, Angela Gittens, who talks about ACI’s efforts to develop products and services to help airports prepare for and mitigate cyber-attacks; review the recent SMART Airports & Regions Conference and Exhibition in El Paso; and discover the latest industry news on our World Business Partner pages.

I know I am preaching to the converted, but it never fails to amaze me how airports continue to innovate and impress when it comes to IT, airport design and a host of other key issues on AW a daily basis.

AIRPORT WORLD/ISSUE 5, 2019

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CONTENTS

ISSUE 5 Volume 24

In this issue 3 Opinion

Airport World editor, Joe Bates, reflects on the enabling power of new technology at the same time as not forgetting the importance of the human touch in air travel.

8 World in motion ACI World’s communications manager, Sabrina Guerrieri, reports on the latest traffic trends, the relaunch of the Smart Security programme and ACI’s Vision 2040 for air transport security.

11 View from the top ACI World director general, Angela Gittens, reflects on the topic of cybersecurity and the organisation’s efforts to develop products and services to help airports prepare for and mitigate cyber-attacks.

12 Beautiful Bogotá OPAIN CEO, Álavaro González, talks to Joe Bates about the future development plans for Bogotá’s El Dorado International Airport.

18 Ready for the future?

What new technologies are on the horizon and how many of these can we expect to find commonplace at airports in 10 to 15 years’ time? Arturo García-Alonso considers some options.

21 Auto pilot!

Baggage dollies, shuttle buses and even snow ploughs are among the ever-growing list of autonomous vehicles being trialled at airports across the world, writes Joe Bates.

25 Winds of change Airports have a reputation for caution when it comes to adopting cloud technology, but Baku in Azerbaijan is defying expectations, writes Yannick Beunardeau, Amadeus’ vice president for airport IT.

27 Go with the flow John Thompson, Greater Toronto Airports Authority’s associate director for IT, explains how Toronto Pearson is using new technology to streamline the flow of passengers and staff through its facilities.

AIRPORT WORLD/ISSUE 5, 2019

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CONTENTS

Director General Angela Gittens (Montreal, Canada) Chair Martin Eurnekián (Buenos Aires, Argentina) Vice Chair Aimen Al-Hosni (Muscat, Oman) Immediate Past Chair Fredrick J Piccolo (Sarasota, USA) Treasurer Emmanuel Menanteau (Osaka, Japan) ACI WORLD GOVERNING BOARD DIRECTORS

29 Cool runnings Mark Fosbrook of BakerHicks explains how Formula 1 techniques are being used to fast track better airport design.

33 On the map The utilisation of geographic information system (GIS) mapping technology has helped Reno-Tahoe International Airport become an economically competitive hub, writes Esri’s Terry Bills.

34 Going digital Niranjan Navaratnarajah, cargo industry director for Unisys Asia Pacific, argues that real-time data is fundamental to a connected cargo supply chain to reduce idle time and increase visibility, transparency and security.

36 Human touch Curtis Fentress, founder and principal in charge of design at Fentress Architects, considers the importance of building people friendly terminals that enhance passenger journeys.

38 SMART talk Joe Bates looks back at some of the highlights of the recent SMART Airports & Regions Conference and Exhibition in El Paso.

44 Market appeal How do you create an innovative brand experience for growing airports? Big Vision’s founder and CEO, Joe Quinn, provides some thoughts and reflects on the successful rebranding of Orlando Sanford International Airport.

47 Asset protection Charlotte Douglas International Airport’s stormwater management solution will help ensure its long-term growth and development, write HDR’s Ronald Geiger and Damian Gaiski-Weitz.

48 WBP News The latest global news from ACI’s World Business Partners.

50 People matters Terri Morrissey and Richard Plenty provide their thoughts on artificial intelligence and robots in the workplace.

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Africa (2) Zouhair El Aoufir (Rabat, Morocco) 1 Vacancy Asia-Pacific (9) Aimen Al-Hosni (Muscat, Oman) Kjeld Binger (Amman, Jordan) Geoff Culbert (Sydney, Australia) Fred Lam (Hong Kong) Seow Hiang Lee (Singapore) Xue Song Liu, (Beijing, China) Emmanuel Menanteau (Osaka, Japan) PS Nair (Delhi, India) Sasisubha Sukontasap (Bangkok, Thailand) Europe (7) Daniel Burkard (Moscow, Russia) Elena Mayoral Corcuera (Madrid, Spain) Jost Lammers (Budapest, Hungary) Yiannis Paraschis (Athens, Greece) Stefan Schulte (Frankfurt, Germany) Sani Şener (Istanbul, Turkey) Nazareno Ventola (Bologna, Italy) Latin America & Caribbean (3) Ezequiel Barrenechea (Lima, Peru) Martin Eurnekián (Buenos Aires, Argentina) Andrew O’Brian (Quito, Ecuador) North America (7) Lew Bleiweis (Asheville, USA) Joyce Carter (Halifax, Canda) Howard Eng (Toronto, Canada) Deborah Flint (Los Angeles, USA) Joseph Lopano (Tampa, USA) Candace McGraw (Cincinnati, USA) Tom Ruth (Edmonton, Canada) Regional Advisers to the World Governing Board (10) Diego Arrosa (Montevideo, Uruguay) Arnaud Feist (Brussels, Belgium) Pascal Komla (Lomé, Togo) Bashir Ahmad Abdul Majid (Delhi, India) Hector Navarrete Muñoz (Merida, Mexico) Augustin de Romanet (Paris, France) Brian Ryks (Minneapolis-St Paul, USA) William Vanecek (Buffalo, USA) 2 Vacancies World Business Partner Observer Thomas Duffy (ADB SAFEGATE) Correct as of October 2019

ACI WORLDHEAD NEWS RUNNING

World in motion

ACI World’s communications manager, Sabrina Guerrieri, reports on the latest traffic trends, the relaunch of the Smart Security programme and ACI’s Vision 2040 for air transport security.

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CI World has released the latest World Airport Traffic Report showing passenger growth resilience despite global uncertainty.

Passenger numbers are estimated to have reached 8.8 billion in 2018, an increase of +6.4% compared to the previous year. In addition, the world’s airports accommodated 122.7 million tonnes of cargo and almost 100 million aircraft movements.

While advanced economies held the largest proportion (52.8%) of global passenger traffic, airport traffic in emerging markets and developing economies grew faster (+8.3%) than in advanced economies (+4.8%) in 2018.

In ACI’s view, protectionist policies, a slowing global economy and geopolitical tensions represent the most pressing downside risks over the near-term for continued growth. In addition, physical capacity considerations and potential bottlenecks in air transport infrastructure continue to pose challenges in accommodating future demand.

Despite this, passenger traffic has remained resilient, posting annual growth rates above historical averages with the cost of travel decreasing in many markets and middle-class populations burgeoning in emerging markets.

While growth moderated slightly compared to 2017, passenger traffic remained resilient in the face of the global uncertainties affecting many major economies. The 2018 increase is still above the +5.8% compounded average annual growth rate for passenger traffic from 2010 through 2018.

The report found that the air cargo market did not fare as well as passenger traffic in 2018. Global year-over-year volume fell -1.7% in December 2018, against the previous year, bringing growth for 2018 overall to +3.4%.

“If these isolationist policies persist, their adverse effects will continue to stifle output growth in many countries,” says ACI World director general, Angela Gittens. “Economies that rely more on exports or carry higher debt loads will be most sensitive to a downturn, further exacerbating economic conditions.

“In fact, ACI data shows that global passenger traffic growth was subdued in the first half of 2019 with a moderate increase of +3.6% year-over-year, so it is apparent the global economic slowdown is having an impact on aviation markets.

“Air cargo has felt an even greater impact as volumes handled by the world’s major airports contracted by -3.2% in the first half of 2019. A resolution to the trade disputes will help put aviation markets back on track.”

Even with these short-term challenges, however, ACI World’s global medium-term forecast show almost 30% growth in passenger

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numbers from 2018 to 2023. Over the longer term, passenger traffic worldwide is expected to double in 17 years and projected to grow at an annualised rate of +4.1%, reaching 20.9 billion by 2040.

ACI’s flagship publication remains the authoritative source and industry reference for airport traffic data, rankings and trends for over 2,500 airports in 180 countries worldwide.

It provides a view of air transport demand across the world’s airports by three thematic areas: passengers, cargo (freight and mail) and aircraft movements. International and domestic traffic breakdowns are also presented in this publication. It can be previewed and purchased on the ACI World publication webpage.

The world’s airports are taking action now to prepare to meet this demand by improving security, efficiency and facilitation across the entire passenger journey.

As a result, ACI has relaunched its transformative Smart Security programme, which aims to improve passenger and cabin baggage screening at airports worldwide.

The relaunched Smart Security programme, led by ACI, forms an integral part of this global effort by bringing together innovation and collaboration between global airports, regulators and airlines.

ACI is developing its Vision 2040 for air transport security and Smart Security will be central to this vision. It will define the future of passenger and cabin baggage screening, identify improvements and solutions that can be introduced now, and communicate these solutions to airports around the world so they can be adopted swiftly.

Smart Security will continue to deliver strengthened security through making better use of existing and emerging technology, increased efficiency and the better flow and movement of passengers and baggage.

Ultimately, it aims to deliver a walk-through, seamless passenger experience at airport security touchpoints and move away from a ‘one size fits all’ approach.

ACI has also launched a new visual identity for the Smart Security programme to reflect its new vision and airport focus.

ACI WORLD NEWS

ACI events

2019

2019

2019

2020

October 21-23

October 12-18

October 30-31

March 24-26

ACI-LAC Regional Assembly, Conference & Exhibition Bogotá, Colombia

ACI Africa Regional Assembly, Conference & Exhibition Accra, Ghana

The Trinity Forum Doha, Qatar

Airport Economics & Finance Conference and Exhibition Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

ACI offices ACI World Angela Gittens Director General PO Box 302 800 Rue du Square Victoria Montreal, Quebec H4Z 1G8 Canada Tel: +1 514 373 1200 Fax: +1 514 373 1201 aci@aci.aero www.aci.aero

ACI Asia-Pacific Patti Chau Regional Director Hong Kong SAR, China Tel: +852 2180 9449 Fax: +852 2180 9462 info@aci-asiapac.aero www.aci-asiapac.aero

ACI Africa Ali Tounsi Secretary General Casablanca, Morocco Tel: +212 660 156 916 atounsi@aci-africa.aero www.aci-africa.aero

ACI Latin America & Caribbean Javier Martinez Botacio Director General Panama City, Panama Tel: +507 830 5657/58 jmartinez@aci-lac.aero www.aci-lac.aero

ACI Europe Olivier Jankovec Director General Brussels, Belgium Tel: +32 (2) 552 0978 Fax: +32 (2) 502 5637 danielle.michel@aci-europe.org www.aci-europe.org

ACI North America Kevin Burke President & CEO Washington DC, USA Tel: +1 202 293 8500 Fax: +1 202 331 1362 postmaster@aci-na.org www.aci-na.org

As of January 2019, ACI serves 646 members operating 1,960 airports in 176 countries. ACI is a non-profit organization whose prime purpose is to advance the interests of airports and to promote professional excellence in airport management and operations. According to ACI’s 2018 Annual World Airport Traffic Report, in 2017 airports worldwide welcomed 8.3 billion arriving and departing passengers and handled 118.6 million metric tonnes of cargo and 95.8 million aircraft movements.

AIRPORT WORLD/ISSUE 5, 2019

AW

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ACI VIEWPOINT

View from the top ACI World director general, Angela Gittens, reflects on the topic of cybersecurity and the organisation’s efforts to develop products and services to help airports prepare for and mitigate cyber-attacks.

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yber security continues to be a real concern for the aviation sector, with threats expected to increase in number and impact for the foreseeable future.

All businesses, including airports, are at danger from cybersecurity threats, whether they have a straightforward set of systems or the most sophisticated IT digital transformation programmes.

It is thus, essential, that aviation stakeholders establish a programme of cyber resilience and maintain robust and efficient cybersecurity defenses.

ACI continues to offer and develop products and services to help airports prepare for and mitigate cyber-attacks through the ACI Cybersecurity Portfolio which includes several elements.

First, it includes training; both technical training that addresses incident detection, analysis and response, designing for security and audit approaches alongside a practical course for airport managers, which covers the principles upon which a successful cybersecurity programme is established and maintained.

The portfolio also offers guidance material via the Cybersecurity for Executives Handbook, launched at ACI’s Annual Assembly, Conference and Exhibition earlier this year. This handbook is intended to provide airport executives and other concerned airport senior management personnel with valuable information on the basics of the management of cyber security.

It is non-technical and highlights some of the key actions airports can take towards addressing cybersecurity threats and becoming more resilient.

Later this year, ACI will launch the Cybersecurity Implementation Handbook, which will provide detailed information to help airports understand best practices for addressing cybersecurity threats, from implementing a cybersecurity framework through to technical strategies.

As far as tools, the portfolio includes the ACI Cybersecurity Self-Assessment Tool provides airport stakeholders with a snapshot of their Information Security management strengths and weaknesses.

ACI also has a team of experts with practical airport IT security experience, ready to help airports understand their cybersecurity risk, improve their protective measures and build resilience to cybersecurity attack.

ACI experts and members play an active role in cybersecurity in the work of ICAO at the global level. ACI does not believe that there is a need for more prescriptive standards for cybersecurity. Indeed, these may be counterproductive since it is a fast paced, volatile issue where responses need to be flexible and agile.

Different countries also have different approaches, with different responsibilities across multiple agencies. This makes a set of standards purely for aviation difficult and complex to implement.

However, there is a clear need for international co-operation, joined up governance and coherent and practical policies to address these issues. Coupled with practical solutions for information sharing, oversight, capacity building and training, there is an urgent need for a strategy and action plan for civil aviation.

Cybersecurity is not an issue that can be separated naturally into safety, security, operations, air navigation and facilitation since it cuts across all areas. Risk assessment, guidance material, policy development and oversight will apply to all areas.

ACI is therefore encouraging ICAO to create a structure that could bring a greater range of expertise and experience on the topic of cybersecurity, alongside working groups to dedicate more time and resource to the development of guidance materials, programmes, capacity building, assistance and training.

We presented our position on cybersecurity at the recent 40th Triennial ICAO Assembly touching on each of these elements. The Paper and outcome from the ICAO Assembly can be found on ACI AW World’s website.

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AIRPORT REPORT: BOGOTÁ

Beautiful

Bogotá OPAIN CEO, Álavaro González, talks to Joe Bates about the future development plans for Bogotá’s El Dorado International Airport.

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ogotà’s El Dorado International Airport handled a record 32.7 million passengers in 2018 to cement its status as Colombia’s gateway to the world and the third busiest airport in Latin America.

Indeed, it is a South American success story, as most of its key passenger facilities have either been built or upgraded over the last decade by concessionaire OPAIN. “Our goal is to make El Dorado a world class airport with world class facilities and services that match its status as the gateway to Bogotá and Colombia, and this ambition will never go away,” states OPAIN CEO, Álavaro González.

“We will never waiver in this desire and we will continue to invest in people, new technology and improving our existing facilities to ensure that El Dorado is a world class airport that continues to grow in a sustainable way over the next seven to eight years.”

If you were wondering why he was so specific in his timeframe, it is because OPAIN’s 20-year concession to manage and develop Bogotá’s El Dorado International Airport (BOG) runs out in early 2027, and under the terms of deal and Colombian law, it cannot be renewed.

This means that OPAIN, a special purpose vehicle (SPV) originally set up by a consortium of Colombian construction and engineering companies for the sole objective of operating and developing the airport’s terminal and cargo facilities, will cease to exist from 2027.

And with OPAIN already exceeding its contractual obligations in developing BOG – it has invested upwards of $1.5 billion on transformational new additions such as one of Latin America’s most impressive passenger terminals and a 7,000sqm cargo terminal – there could be concerns that all spending will be put on hold as it lets the clock run down on the concession.

This, however, is something that González insists couldn’t be further from the truth, revealing plans to embrace Airport Collaborative Decision Making (A-CDM), new technologies and plans to expand the terminal and revamp its retail/F&B offerings over the next few years.

“We will invest more and, although it will not be on the scale of before as we won’t have time to recoup the investment, it won’t be insignificant as we know we have to enhance our capabilities to keep up with rising traffic demand and passenger expectations,” says González.

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“We are already the busiest airport in Colombia and the third busiest in Latin America for passengers and the No.1 for cargo, but we want to be the best and make El Dorado the airport that airlines want to serve and passengers want to fly to when visiting Colombia or catching onward connecting flights.

“This will only be possible if we offer our customers the facilities and levels of service they want and would expect to find at one of the world’s top airports.”

He notes that failing to deliver “the best possible experience” to passengers and its airline customers could ultimately result in BOG losing out to other airports in the region such as Panama City, Mexico City and Lima.

Customer service focus OPAIN has certainly developed as a commercial business over the last couple of years under the leadership of González, arguably becoming much more dynamic and customer focused.

The change, which González has given momentum to through a number of key management changes, has led to it concentrating a lot of time and effort on improving the customer service skills of staff and growing commercial revenues.

A planned revamp of BOG’s retail and F&B offerings, which will include introducing a host of new local and international brands and making shops easier to access, is part of this new approach. New performance related contracts for outlet operators are also being considered in order to maintain consistently high standards and service levels.

AIRPORT REPORT: BOGOTÁ

It should also come as no surprise to learn that the renewed emphasis on the customer experience has led to a rise in passenger satisfaction levels at BOG over the last couple of years.

Environment El Dorado’s Level 2 ‘Reduction’ status in ACI’s Airport Carbon Accreditation programme arguably demonstrates a similar strong commitment to protecting the environment.

Indeed, González reveals that good environmental stewardship to ensure the sustainable development of BOG is something that OPAIN takes very seriously.

So much so, in fact, that the airport has one of the best solid and wastewater recycling programmes in Colombia and will shortly install solar panels at BOG to make the gateway more energy efficient.

He is particularly proud of El Dorado’s ‘Integral solid waste management programme’, which means that the airport now recovers 52% of its waste. And he expects the figure to rise to 65% by 2021.

Next up is the installation of 10,369 solar panels across the airport site, which OPAIN expects to generate around 12% of the energy consumption of BOG’s terminal building and reduce El Dorado’s annual CO2 emissions by 1,375 tons – the equivalent to the oxygen produced by 76,000 mature trees.

“Sustainability is a fundamental element for the management and development of one of the best airports in South America,” insists González. “As a result, every day we execute initiatives that seek to protect and optimise the use of natural resources, so that we generate a favourable impact for the planet.”

Sustainability is a fundamental element for the management and development of one of the best airports in South America Traffic trends A total of 32.7 million passengers (+7%) and 741,500 tonnes of cargo, the most in all of South America, passed through El Dorado International Airport in 2018 to confirm its ranking as Colombia’s biggest gateway, handling around 70% of the country’s air traffic.

Domestic traffic currently accounts for around 70% of the total number of passengers handled at BOG annually, although international traffic continues to grow, and is now responsible for a healthy 30% of the throughput.

Transfer traffic is also on the rise due to good onward connections offered out of BOG by hub carriers Avianca and LATAM Colombia, while Bogotá is also the home base for low-cost carriers Satena and Wing and a focus city for Copa Airlines, Viva Air Colombia and EasyFly. Home carriers Avianca (64%) and LATAM Colombia (15%) are in fact the biggest operators at El Dorado, although González is quick to point

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AIRPORT REPORT: BOGOTÁ

out the “hugely positive impact” the low cost carriers have had on passenger numbers in recent years, in particular Bogotá based Wingo, which now accounts for around 15% of the domestic LLC market.

The top five domestic routes are Medellín, Cali, Cartagena, Barranquilla and Cúcuta, while Madrid, Lima, Panama City and Mexico City are the most popular international destinations.

González attributes the upturn in passengers to Colombia’s fast-growing economy and the fact that the country’s geography makes aviation the only feasible mode of transport for long distance domestic travel.

“Passenger traffic has been growing for about a decade, last year by 7% and before that by double digits,” he says. “This country is divided into three parts by the Andes, and although the distances between cities isn’t that great, you have to go across mountain ranges to get anywhere, so it favours flying, as most people prefer a 30-minute flight to an eight-hour drive.”

Future development El Dorado’s passenger facilities comprise a $600 million ‘showpiece’ international terminal (Terminal 1), opened in 2012, a domestic area (Terminal 2) and two concourses added in 2014 that now effectively form a single building covering 223,700sqm.

These facilities ensure that El Dorado has 54 gates, 138 check-in counters, 45 Immigration lanes, hundreds of retail/F&B outlets, a “high tech” baggage claim area and a six-lane road entrance that can accommodate 80,000 vehicles daily.

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BOG also has a new ATC tower and CAA control centre, although these were government funded and opened in 2015.

González says that the design capacity of El Dorado is around 40 to 45 million passengers per annum, and with the upward trajectory in traffic expected to continue for the foreseeable future, the airport will start to run out of capacity in five to six years based on growth projections.

Plans for a new terminal and third runway that could raise BOG’s capacity to 70mppa have been mooted, but with the government yet to make a decision on how it wants to develop the airport and the concession coming to an end on January 19, 2027, enhancing today’s facilities and improving operational efficiency through new technology and initiatives such as Airport Collaborative Decision Making (A-CDM) is the easiest option at the moment.

González, who states that El Dorado is the future for Colombia following the government’s late 2018 decision to axe plans for a second Bogotá airport, tells Airport World that this effectively means that OPAIN will expand the terminal(s), invest in new technology such as selfservice kiosks, e-gates and aircraft parking guidance systems, and take advantage of the recent airspace redesign around BOG to increase the airport’s airfield capacity from 72 to 90 air traffic movements per hour.

The fact that BOG has a night curfew and is also home to the Colombian air force whose presence can cause flight disruptions, is not ideal, but there is little OPAIN can do about these issues until the government decides to review the situation.

AIRPORT REPORT: BOGOTÁ

“We do suffer from congestion at certain times during the day, but I am confident that the full adoption of A-CDM across the airport from next year will make everything more efficient,” says González.

“We are also looking at introducing a number of new smart technologies that will make processes and procedures quicker and easier for passengers, so this should not only ease congestion but raise our capacity to handle more passengers.”

ACI Latin America & Caribbean Regional Conference Bogotá will host this year’s ACI Latin America & Caribbean Regional Assembly, Conference and Exhibition in Colombia (October 21-23) and González believes that the event will give OPAIN the chance to showcase El Dorado and all that’s good about Bogotá and his country to a global audience.

He also feels that hosting the event will provide OPAIN with the opportunity to enhance its reputation as a leading airport operator, extend its influence with ACI Latin-America & Caribbean, and share and exchange knowledge and best practices with the airport community.

“People will be surprised and delighted by Bogotá and, of course, our airport and Colombian hospitality,” enthuses González. “I also want to change some people’s perceptions about Colombia, which is a very different country to the one that it was 20 years ago.”

Doing things differently Without doubt BOG’s 2006 privatisation was a little different to most others because concessionaire winner, OPAIN, is only responsible for the management and development of the passenger terminal and cargo facilities.

It does this with the help of APORT, the 100% owned subsidiary of Zurich Airport, which provides OPAIN with operational and technical support under the terms of a Technical Services Agreement (TSA).

Elsewhere on the airport, the task of operating and maintaining El Dorado’s runways and taxiways is carried out by Compañía de Desarollo Aeropuerto Eldorado (Codad).

While the Colombian government, through the state-owned Civil Aviation Authority, is responsible for air traffic control services, runway

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I am confident that the full adoption of A-CDM across the airport from next year will make everything more efficient lighting and the installation of radar, instrument landing systems and all other navigational aids at El Dorado.

Under the terms of the concessions, Codad is entitled to all landing fees and OPAIN makes its money from activities such as aircraft parking, passenger taxes and the use of airbridges to office rental and shopping.

Some would say that it’s not an ideal set up, but there is no denying that it has worked as passenger traffic at El Dorado continues to rise, BOG now boasts one of the best and most recognisable airport terminals in Latin America and, just as importantly, it has a growing reputation as one of the most environmentally friendly gateways on the planet.

González is aware of all of this and fiercely determined to avoid a drop in the standards that BOG currently enjoys in the last few years of the concession by raising the bar on operational efficiency, environmental best practice and customer service even higher between now and the end of the contract.

He notes: “We have done everything that was expected of us and more since Day One, and we will continue to do this, and make El Dorado better for everyone, until the end of the concession.”

What comes next for BOG after OPAIN? Well, one possible scenario is that its holding company, Cementos Argos SA, could form a new SPV and negotiate a new concession with the Colombian government.

But that, my friends, is a story for another day!

AW

SPECIAL REPORT: IT INNOVATION

Ready for the future?

What new technologies are on the horizon and how many of these can we expect to find commonplace at airports in 10 to 15 years’ time?

Arturo García-Alonso considers some options.

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hen thinking about the future for airports, both as an industry and in the broad sense, it is wise to be pragmatic and try to differentiate what we want to happen from what is likely to happen.

After all, aviation is a constantly evolving business and what is considered essential today in terms of facilities and IT systems might not be necessary or even required by 2030.

As a result, future technologies won’t be limited to just simplifying each step of the air transport door-to-door flow process as we know it today and, in many cases, will eliminate some of the existing steps while triggering dramatic improvements in infrastructure design and space allocation.

So, what type of new technology can we expect to see coming to an airport near you in the short to mid-term future? Listed below are a few of the technologies that can potentially impact upon every one of the current processes that we go through today when we travel.

The desire to travel Let’s start with a biggie, will people really want to travel by air so much in the future?

Future technology will arguably impact on the need for air travel.

‘Hyperreality’ technologies, which combine virtual intelligence, sensorial data transfer technologies and artificial intelligence, will directly compete with air travel in the future.

These technologies could provide a virtual destination experience to the potential traveller. There are several case studies out there of ‘experience rooms’ where customers can sense and feel as if they were personally interacting in virtual environments reproduced by artificial intelligence and imaging technologies.

These new technologies will effectively allow people to share real-time virtual experiences with other people physically located anywhere in the world.

Will this spark the death of air travel? I don’t think so as I believe that there will always be a need for air travel as a singular physical mobility experience, but honestly, hyperreality will likely reduce the long-haul air travel business class air travel segment.

Creating new experiences and travel segments One of the growing opportunities that new aircraft technologies may bring to the airport environment is the development of new ‘experiential’ destinations, such as space travel.

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Many companies around the world are developing commercial space travel concepts, which rely on ground infrastructure. Airports can leverage their strengths in infrastructure management by embracing these new aircraft technologies. In addition, space travel can be a commercial opportunity for medium and small sized airports in search of new business development ideas.

Ground transportation and inter-modality One of the key success factors for airports in the near future will be their ability to become key players in the development of future multi-modal transportation concepts.

This includes integrating multi-modal information in existing airport operational databases; the development of infrastructure to support electric vehicles and sustainable ground transportation concepts; and last but very important, the mass adoption of mobility as a service via vehicle sharing and pooling.

The travelling public from each airport’s catchment areas will have a growing number of multi-modal transportation opportunities, including hybrid/electric aviation. Defining robust implementation strategies and leading its adoption will be a key success factor for airport operators worldwide in the coming years.

This will have higher impact on small, medium sized airports, which will benefit from the additional opportunities that electric and hybrid powered aviation will bring in terms of point to point commuting. In addition, the development of new gig economy business models may bring opportunities for aircraft sharing and pooling schemes.

SPECIAL REPORT: IT INNOVATION Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), in the future, it will be possible to redesign these processes from the ground up.

This means that many of the traditional self-service options will not be needed. Self-tagging, for example, will be redundant when bag tags are not needed anymore. And I fully expect to see the introduction of walk-through and/or drive-through bag drops, potentially taking the entire process off-site.

Boarding will be walk-through, and even flight re-booking will happen automatically by AI software. It is fair to say that the majority of self-service processes will be replaced by flow-through processes in the future.

Airport maintenance nanobots Another key technology that will likely impact on airports in the next ten to fifteen years is the adoption of nanobots. These small robots will be designed to access those areas where a human being cannot access or would have difficulty accessing or carrying out a particular task.

Preventative maintenance and the monitoring of systems and infrastructure are just two areas where they could prove invaluable at airports.

This technology will potentially increase system availability and reliability, while allowing staff to focus on those heavy maintenance activities which are more difficult to automate.

Energy producing roadways

Baggage processing Baggage processing is probably the area that will have a more dramatic evolution in the next ten to fifteen years. Imaging recognition technologies combined with networked belt scales and smart scanning capabilities could potentially create a unique ‘Image ID’ of a bag that can be used as its identification token, eventually replacing conventional barcodes, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) and permanent bag tags.

The first step of the process could be to take a picture of your baggage with your smartphone at any point in time before drop-off and uploading it as part of a self-service mobile bag registration.

This step would allow you to use any common use bag drop – either in the terminal, kerbside at the airport or at a remote location such as a hotel, holiday resort or drive-through drop-off area – and simply drop the bag there. The automatic matching of the passenger’s biometric with the pre-loaded bag picture will make the process seamless and efficient.

Removing the need for tagging bags will be a major paradigm shift in baggage processing, which great benefits and efficiencies for passengers and all stakeholders.

From self-service to flow-through processes Traditionally, the development of self-service opportunities has focused on making customers follow and replicate the same conventional processes previously performed by an agent.

However, as airports integrate additional technologies and we get better at exchanging real-time data in a service-oriented way via

Many airports are implementing strategies to increase the use of electric vehicles (EV) for operational and multi-modal purposes. This will bring additional challenges related to battery management and charging port infrastructure.

Several companies are testing inductive charging technologies for EVs integrated in roadway pavements and parking stands, which will make it possible for vehicles to be charged while in use on the tarmac or when parked in specific stand positions.

These technologies, paired with a charging distribution software platform and a microgrid-based electric infrastructure, will provide enhanced opportunities of battery charging management.

Conclusion We are seeing more and more examples of flexibility and maturity being built into the future development plans of airports and this can only lead to exciting times ahead for both airport operators and passengers.

In fact, airports today are leveraging their innovation and operational efficiency strategies on their way to providing additional opportunities for partnerships and continuous improvements worldwide.

Arguably, this means that the airport industry is on its way to achieving a user-centred, seamless and sustainable airport experience across the globe. And airports and aviation stakeholders are working hard to develop, deliver and maintain a flexible infrastructure and operational concept.

Embracing flexibility is a key opportunity for growth and operational efficiency, and a sound success strategy for small and medium sized airports and the communities they serve.

About the author Arturo García-Alonso is co-owner and managing director of aviation consultancy, Airport Intelligence.

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Auto pilot!

Baggage dollies, shuttle buses and even snow ploughs are among the ever-growing list of autonomous vehicles being trialled at airports across the world, writes Joe Bates.

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he interest in the potential use of autonomous vehicles at airports is growing with a host of individual trials taking place across the world as the industry seeks to discover the value of the introduction of intelligent, self-driving buses, trucks and other pieces of equipment.

IATA certainly believes that there is scope for the introduction of autonomous vehicles (AVs) at airports, citing 40 potential examples ranging from baggage vehicles, passenger load bridges and maintenance trucks to aircraft tugs.

While Dr Graeme Smith, the CEO of UK firm Oxbotica, a specialist in software that enables vehicles to run autonomously without reliance on GPS or any other technology outside the vehicle, says: “Airports offer an incredibly interesting domain for our autonomous driving software.

“There is a huge diversity of vehicles, each with a very specific mission. The challenge of choreographing all of the activity around an individual plane, or in support of airport operations, is immense.”

Benefits of the use of autonomous vehicles to the aviation industry could include the potential reduction in the amount of support vehicles required at airports.

For now, autonomous vehicle testing continues at airports across the world, with the latest and, in some cases ongoing trials, at London Heathrow, Brussels South Charleroi, Dallas/Fort Worth, Winnipeg and Christchurch airports under the spotlight in this article.

Baggage dollies at LHR AV specialist, Aurrigo, claims to come up with a new way of transporting luggage around airports, citing the successful trial of the world’s first automated baggage dolly at London’s Heathrow Airport as an example of just what can be achieved.

The company was approached by International Airlines Group (IAG) to use its driverless expertise to develop the world’s first autonomous baggage carrying dolly.

The trial (pictured above) started in March and has seen an existing dolly converted using LIDAR and GPS technology into a self-driving, electric vehicle that promises to increase the speed of loading and unloading luggage at airports throughout the world.

Working with British Airways (BA), the adapted dolly has been moving around Terminal 5 at Heathrow Airport and is now also operating in the baggage handling area.

Designed, developed and manufactured at Aurrigo’s advanced engineering centre in Coventry, the firm will now embark on a global marketing programme to talk to the world’s airports and airlines about retrofitting existing dollies to make them fully autonomous.

It also plans exploring production of a new range of super lightweight versions for extended operational performance.

“Until you have seen it first-hand, it’s difficult to explain how big an operation it is moving bags around an airport. In Terminal 5 alone, BA operates around 900 dollies,” explains Aurrigo’s operations director, Richard Fairchild.

“The current method is to have one manually driven tug towing three dollies behind. It can’t move until they are all full, which means there are a lot of empty dollies waiting around.

“What IAG wanted to do was look at an alternative solution and that’s where we came in, using knowledge gained from our hugely successful PodZero passenger carrying vehicle to turn a standard dolly into a self-driving vehicle capable of moving bags from the baggage hall to the aircraft stand.

“Better still, this means that each dolly can move on its own and doesn’t need to wait for all three to be loaded, providing greater flexibility and speed of loading, not to mention reducing the need to maintain such a huge fleet of dollies and tugs. A massive win-win for airports and airlines.”

Aurrigo and IAG are said to be “extremely pleased” with the initial results and are looking at ways where they can roll this technology out so that it becomes an integral part of any ‘future airport’.

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Our friends electric Brussels South Charleroi Airport trialled Flibco’s electric self-driving shuttle bus, the NAVYA, in early September as it looks at potential new solutions for transporting transit passengers between its two terminals.

The 15-passenger capacity vehicle has a top speed of 20 kilometres per hour and, if adopted, would be used to “improve the traveller experience” by ferrying connecting passengers between Terminals 1 and 2.

Airport CEO, Philippe Verdonck, says: “We are always looking for innovative ideas and a quick, efficient solution designed to link up our two terminals. Over time, transit flights will increase, which is why we are looking at the self-driving solution offered by Flibco.com. In addition, in its capacity as an electric vehicle, the NAVYA is environmentally friendly and meets our environmental requirements.”

Otto the snowplough Winnipeg Richardson International Airport in Canada is home to ‘Otto’, the first autonomous snow plough in North America.

The plough is the result of a partnership with Manitoba companies Northstar Robotics Inc and Airport Technologies Inc (ATI), and is able to clear snow by following pre-determined routes.

It will, however, only be used in “less complex areas” of the airport while further research and development takes place.

Otto is able to operate autonomously using Northstar Robotics technology while the plough itself is equipped with 3D LIDAR and RADAR that can sense its surroundings and detect obstacles.

In addition, Otto is equipped with a fault tolerant wireless emergency stop system, a further safety enhancement.

“Launching North America’s first autonomous snowplough is a great achievement for Winnipeg Richardson International Airport,” said Barry Rempel, president and CEO of Winnipeg Airports Authority.

“Our success is a direct result of bringing together partners who are committed to lead transportation innovation and growth.”

While Shawn Schaerer, president and founder of Northstar Robotics, noted: “Autonomous technology is changing how we work. It is exciting to partner with companies that are ready to adapt and pioneer this cutting-edge technology.”

Baggage vehicle trial at DFW Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) has become the first US gateway to trial Vanderlande’s autonomous FLEET baggage handling vehicles.

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In DFW’s case, the airport is using the innovative technology to help its customers make more seamless transfers in the re-check area in Terminal D. The first of its kind robotic system can handle nearly 450 bags per hour and is being tested with transfer passengers who arrive from international flights and connect through DFW. “DFW is testing the process to see how we might provide our customers with a more seamless journey using the award-winning technology within our current baggage infrastructure, and integrating automation for efficiency,” says Khaled Naja, DFW’s executive vice president of infrastructure and development.

“As we go through the pilot programme, DFW will evaluate this new technology and assess potential applications of robots and autonomous vehicles at different points within the airport.”

Vanderlande’s executive vice president for airports, Andrew Manship, enthuses: “This particular application is both exciting and challenging for us, because FLEET will be working in a passenger area.

“Vanderlande believes FLEET aligns with the airport’s vision, because they have a strong commitment to improving the passenger experience, as well as showcasing the latest innovations.”

Christchurch’s Smart Shuttles Autonomous vehicles are part of Christchurch Airport’s long-term vision for the future and, in part, explains why the New Zealand gateway has been experimenting with driverless shuttles for the past two years.

The airport is hosting New Zealand’s first trial of an autonomous vehicle on its private roads, and recently introduced the first Kiwi made Smart Shuttle (pictured above) to the trial.

In the latest trial in June, passengers had the opportunity to enjoy a quick ride around the terminal’s forecourt in the 15 person capacity Smart Shuttle, which incorporates the guidance system technologies of local company HMI Technologies.

Airport CEO, Malcolm Johns, says: “This vehicle is autonomous, electric and has been 3D printed – in fact, it’s currently the world’s largest 3D-printed vehicle. We will continue testing and learning to understand its capabilities and possible applications on our campus.”

The airport’s interest in new technology has also led it to provide logistics support and air space to allow Zephyr Airworks to test the world’s first self-piloted air taxi, Cora, in Canterbury, as well as developing Virtual Reality (VR) training for its firefighters.

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SPECIAL REPORT: IT INNOVATION

Winds of change

Airports have a reputation for caution when it comes to adopting cloud technology, but Baku in Azerbaijan is defying expectations, writes Yannick Beunardeau, Amadeus’ vice president for airport IT.

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n June this year, Baku’s Heydar Aliyev International Airport did what no airport in history has done before and moved its entire operations to the cloud.

The decision was timely, as the ‘City of Winds’ establishes itself as a thriving destination for global business. A world class airport, complementing intelligent design with cutting-edge technology, will play an essential part in the city’s future.

As critical infrastructure providers, airports have naturally been slower to embrace new technology than industries like retailing and even banking. From audio streaming platforms to email to the core financial ledgers that keep track of people’s bank balances, the cloud has become part of our every day. However, the tendency for airports to value the tried and tested over the new and innovative, means that they are comparative latecomers to the cloud but, as the Baku example shows, this reputation for caution is changing fast.

Passenger numbers are on the rise A significant factor driving this is the rising global demand for air travel.

According to IATA, passenger numbers are expected to double over the next twenty years, with emerging markets in Asia, Africa and South America driving growth.

At Baku, passenger numbers are growing at a rate above the international average of 7.4%, increasing by 8.4% between 20172018 alone.

Rising passenger numbers present a challenge for airports. Under legacy technology systems, increases can add constraints when it comes to passenger processing. One way to increase capacity is to physically expand. However, cloud technology ensures that passenger processing is streamlined while making the most of existing physical infrastructure.

Baku’s investment in cloud-based infrastructure to service passengers from check-in to boarding was made to ensure its capacity

can be increased where and whenever necessary. The airport will be able to take advantage of innovations such as off-airport check-in, which helps to reduce airport congestion, handling passengers anywhere with an internet connection.

This includes sporting events, conferences and outside the airport terminal itself. The airport will transcend the constraints of physical space.

Changing passenger expectations A second factor is the changing expectations of travellers. The ‘ondemand’ economy enabled by digital technology is one characterised by efficiency and ease, and also makes the transition through the airport seamless, enabling innovations like automated bag-drop and biometrics.

Airports investing in cloud-based digital technology are well-placed to deliver this. In addition, Azerbaijan Airlines’ upgraded passenger service system (PSS) personalises the passenger experience, providing passengers with the airline’s unique ancillary services such as extra legroom and catering options.

It’s not just the airport that stands to benefit from the cloud.

Azerbaijan Airlines, the country’s flagship airline, carries two million passengers annually across the region, the Middle East and Europe.

As Baku’s largest airline partner its decision to adopt cloud technology means data is more synchronised and closely integrated between the airline and its hub airport, helping to deliver improved situational awareness for all and better on-time performance.

A number of airports globally are embracing the cloud for their core operations. For instance, the Amadeus common use solution ACUS is already in use across numerous airports.

Nevertheless, Baku’s decision to trust its entire operations to the cloud represents a significant industry milestone. It proves airports are ready to take full advantage of cloud technology and indicates an acceleration in cloud adoption across the industry.

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Go with the flow John Thompson, Greater Toronto Airports Authority’s associate director for IT, explains how Toronto Pearson is using new technology to streamline the flow of passengers and staff through its facilities.

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t takes a tremendous amount of work behind the scenes to keep airport operations running smoothly, and Toronto Pearson International Airport is no exception.

In an increasingly digital, connected world, passenger expectations are at an all-time high, while global passenger traffic steadily rises. There are also more travel options than ever, which expands the competitive landscape.

Our goal at Toronto Pearson is to be the world’s best airport. We’ve already been recognised as the ‘Best Large Airport in North America’, but we still have more room for improvement. And part of this process has involved transforming our IT operations.

After all, IT plays a key role in the experience of the nearly 50 million travellers who pass through Toronto Pearson each year. It’s involved in daily operations that include de-icing planes, handling baggage systems, check-in kiosks, on-boarding employees and much more.

Though the airport employs 49,000 people, only 1,600 of them are focused on management, operational and technology jobs. That’s a relatively small number of people to manage all the IT-related needs.

Such a lean staff means that unless we pursued a significant systems upgrade, there was little hope of meeting our goal of continuous improvement.

For instance, IT is responsible for ticketing kiosks, used by passengers for faster check-ins. Kiosks eventually run out of paper or malfunction. It was taking an average of an hour and 12 minutes to open and resolve tickets when kiosks needed servicing.

As a world-class airport, Pearson needed an IT service management (ITSM) solution that could help them better serve their millions of customers and maintain operations in a timely, cost-effective manner. A solution that used predictive analytics would be particularly helpful.

We had learned from past experience that it wasn’t worth our time to build our own solutions. So, we looked into offerings in the IT service

management (ITSM) market, and found SummitAI, a cloud-based system for internal IT support tickets.

In evaluating the various solutions, SummitAI offered many key features and capabilities that would enable us to better predict issues and address operational bottlenecks.

Automation capabilities enable tickets to be automatically generated and routed to work groups for faster resolution. The solution’s AI-driven operational intelligence recommends corrective actions to incidents and problems in real time, driving higher First Call Resolutions (FCR) of issues.

With 24/7 service desk experience, Pearson is delivering significantly better passenger experiences and has streamlined many of the repetitive and manual day-to-day tasks that have previously slowed down operations staff. Now, ticket resolution time is dramatically lower, and passengers are happier.

Within the first three months of using the solution, the airport has seen substantial improvements in several key success factors. First Call Resolution (FCR) has reached as high as 81%. Mean time to repair (MTTR) has been reduced from 2.4 hours to 1.39 hours and the airport’s customer satisfaction score (CSAT) ranked at 96.5%.

The support of our AI-based ITSM solution helped Toronto Pearson achieve recognition as the Best Large Airport in North America for the second year in a row. We look forward to ongoing improvements as we implement additional applications of AI. By taking a slow and steady approach, undergoing an IT transformation doesn’t have to be arduous. Whether a small regional aircraft fleet or international airport, continuous IT improvement is a valuable move, bringing new levels of efficiency to the many activities that go into operations and maintaining customer satisfaction.

As technology innovation continues to accelerate, airports and the entire transportation industry are poised for growth.

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Cool runnings Mark Fosbrook of BakerHicks explains how Formula 1 techniques are being used to fast track better airport design.

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omputational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) is a technique best-known to Formula One racing teams, where it has superseded air tunnels in their search to gain maximum aerodynamics by modelling airflows.

It has also been adopted by the aerospace, general automobile and wind turbine industries, and although not new, is still an emerging science.

Greater computational power is adding to its development, enabling designers to accurately predict what will happen under a given set of circumstances. Parameters can be set, and the CFD software provides the outcome and answer to the ‘what if’ question.

Variations to a design can be tested until an optimal result is found, removing the cost of physical prototyping. In F1, it leads to better, faster cars that meet FIA compliance rules and can be demonstrated to conform to stringent motor racing regulations.

So how does F1 technology translate into an airport environment?

What have modelling airflows got to do with enhancing the passenger experience, ensuring operational reliability, and saving the airport operator money in the longer-term?

Managing environments Modelling airflows to help keep an environment cool in the summer and warm in the winter is an essential part of improving the passenger journey. This is especially true when going through central search security halls, where the heat generated by conveyors and X-ray equipment presents a particular challenge, especially when no two individual airport environments are ever the same.

Add to this the heat generated by hundreds of passengers passing through a relatively confined space every minute, and the challenge becomes even more apparent.

And, it is not just in the security halls that this challenge arises.

New and ever more sophisticated baggage handling and explosive screening systems, as mandated by the European Civil Aviation Conference (ECAC) Standard 3 regulations, have added a further tier of complexity.

Such systems create operational challenges for airport operators, not least in the energy they consume, and the need for the equipment to manage high volumes of throughput.

Keeping these machines ‘cool’ to prevent the cut-in of built-in air conditioning units requires intelligent design and modelling of airflows. Air conditioning systems generate heat in their own right, as well as consuming more energy.

Whilst they are an essential safeguard, ensuring the reliability and operational efficiency of the equipment installed (to prevent them from overheating, for instance), it is better still if the environment in which they are installed is such that this failsafe is not required. Through this, damage to an airport’s reputation and disruption to passengers’ travel plans in the event of systems failure can be avoided.

Displacement ventilation Infrastructure varies vastly at each airport, so every environment requires its own bespoke design. In one example, at an international airport in

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Europe, CFD was used to review the performance of a new displacement ventilation system being used by the airport operator to control the temperature within its refurbished central security search hall.

Displacement ventilation is essentially a method of directing cool air at low velocity into a space through the movement of air from floor to ceiling. A gentle flow of air is distributed into the room at floor level through a series of wall-mounted diffusers around the hall’s perimeter.

The heat created by people, lights, and scanning equipment in the room draws the cooler air up from the floor in a movement known as ‘thermal stratification’. The warmed air then continues to rise towards the ceiling where it is discharged through vents at ceiling level.

In this example, CFD was used to review a number of design factors, and in particular to assess whether the location and number of diffusers were sufficient to condition the room evenly, given that the centre of the hall was up to 20 metres away from the walls.

It was also used to review the likelihood of drafts within the zones adjacent to each diffuser, which may cause discomfort to passengers, as well as the performance of the system under so-called ‘low load’ conditions (when the number of search lanes being used was reduced during the least busy times of the day, for example).

It was important to measure whether the displacement system was capable of conditioning the occupied areas during reduced loads, whilst not over-cooling areas that were temporarily unoccupied.

The ultimate objective of using CFD in this case was to ensure the displacement design was capable of delivering the desired levels of cooling while maintaining a comfortable environment for passengers and staff (21ºC +/-2).

During the construction of the security search hall, the operator decided to introduce further desks into the design which would impact on airflows. With CFD, however, the designers were able to model the impact of additional furniture and easily establish whether any minor amendments to the scheme/design were required.

Using CFD, the designers were able to show that the displacement design was capable of achieving the outcomes the operator desired.

More than this, however, it was also able to show that during the

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summer months, an increase in the supply temperature actually reduced the cooling requirement, thereby reducing energy consumption and, consequently, operational costs.

Explosion detection In another example at a different major international airport, the introduction of a new baggage Explosion Detection System (EDS) presented a further challenge. These machines have to operate within the manufacturer’s specified operational temperatures and were being installed in an existing space that used high-level fan coil units (FCUs) to draw cool air into the hall.

The challenge was to keep the temperature of the space surrounding the machines to less than 32ºC, a temperature beyond which the machine’s own first stage air conditioning units would kick in.

Two FCUs were located on either side of the EDS machines, distributing cooled air from high level to the equipment’s air inlets at lower level. Extract grilles located adjacent to the screening machines allow the heat from the machines to be dissipated.

In this example, designers used CFD to find the optimum location for the supply grilles and confirm the temperatures being generated around each of the machines. By ensuring the temperatures do not exceed the stated thresholds, the built-in air conditioning units are not required, so less energy is being consumed and the reliability and performance of the baggage screening system is enhanced, bringing tangible benefits and peace of mind to the facilities team.

Right first time Computational Fluid Dynamics is a proven technology for allowing theories to be validated, well before the expense of any building work is started or equipment installed. Achieving a ‘right first time’ approach to building design avoids all of the post-install issues that can add unwanted costs, disruption and delay.

Put another way, it helps operators achieve the levels of customer satisfaction and operational efficiency that are essential for AW managing a successful airport environment.

On the map

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The utilisation of geographic information system (GIS) mapping technology has helped RenoTahoe International Airport become an economically competitive hub, writes Esri’s Terry Bills.

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irports play an increasingly important role in connecting economies, strengthening global supply chains, and driving regional development.

Owned and operated by the Reno-Tahoe Airport Authority (RTAA), Reno-Tahoe International Airport (RNO) currently serves over four million passengers annually and delivers more than $3 billion in economic impact to the region.

It expects these figures to rise in the years ahead, with traffic exceeding 6.5mppa in the near future and cargo growth fuelled by companies like Tesla.

Knowing that an efficient, well-connected airport can deliver a competitive advantage to the region, RNO is positioning the Reno-Tahoe area as a central distribution hub to help drive greater economic development in the western states.

This requires capital improvement funds and, in order to receive this funding from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), RNO must also comply with the FAA’s Airport GIS programme.

As a result, RNO needed to collect precise survey information of airfield data in a digital format. So, the airport used a satellite-based air traffic control system called NextGen, designed to gather the digital data required to support this transition. This data would give RNO a head start on gathering the digital GIS data needed to plan for new regional economic opportunities.

The data RNO collected for the FAA’s Airports GIS programme provided the foundation for a series of immediate applications which were designed to support the FAA and wider airport and airspace operations: UAS Restricted Airspace, Airport Height Restrictions, Airport Land Use, Emergency Flood Analysis, Airport Surface Radar coverage analysis, and more.

After a series of stakeholder meetings were held with the properties division, facilities and maintenance, engineering and planning, air service, and operations and finance, the team was able to further refine the airport’s future needs for an enterprise GIS.

Wanting to minimise hardware and software costs, RNO used Esri’s ArcGIS Online cloud-based location intelligence software to deliver both data products and applications to the airport.

At the centre of the GIS applications is a portal through which all other applications and data can be accessed. Any asset or object on the airfield or within the terminal can be identified with its corresponding information. And because it is distributed through ArcGIS Online, it can be accessed anywhere at any time by anyone with appropriate permissions.

The future value of GIS proved itself when RNO developed a new long-range airport Master Plan, which called for a $1.6 billion modernisation and capital improvement to support growing passenger and cargo volumes.

The airport created a separate ArcGIS Online Group for the Master Plan team and all data previously collected became the foundation for their planning activities, supported a public comment application, and provided all stakeholders with efficient and consistent exhibits to be shared among the team as they moved through the review process.

The Master Plan has been submitted to FAA for approval, and the airport is positioning itself for a new larger role in the regional economy.

“The implementation and application of GIS at the organisation will improve the overall business process by connecting departments and making information more accessible,” says Marily Mora, president and CEO Reno-Tahoe Airport Authority.

“Ultimately, this will allow us to serve our customers and stakeholders better than ever before.”

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About the author Terry Bills is global transportation industry manager at Esri, an industry leader in geospatial and location intelligence technology. Visit go.esri.com/esri-airports for more information about the company.

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Going digital Niranjan Navaratnarajah, cargo industry director for Unisys Asia Pacific, argues that real-time data is fundamental to a connected cargo supply chain to reduce idle time and increase visibility, transparency and security.

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e need to securely modernise today’s mostly manual and fragmented cargo distribution processes by going digital.

Let’s face it, most of the cargo industry still uses paper-based processes with duplicated rounds of data entry exacerbated by disparate operational and accounting systems, all of which creates the potential for errors and inefficiencies.

This despite the fact we all know that by automatically capturing and using a single data set throughout the process, based on the trusted Air Waybill (AWB), the cargo industry can modernise and transform to a connected cargo supply chain.

Why change now? The cargo industry must digitalise to reduce shipment idle time to improve the customer experience, optimise asset utilisation, improve security and reduce unnecessary storage costs.

Indeed, for the air cargo industry to attract more goods from other forms of transport, it must be easier, quicker, more secure and cost effective.

To achieve this, the entire cargo industry needs to adopt centralised datasets that are updated in real-time using mobile devices, automation and the Internet of Things (IoT) to hasten processes and allow buyers and sellers to access up-to-date and accurate information. This ‘connected cargo supply chain’ offers customers greater visibility, certainty and satisfaction.

In my view the industry needs to make three key changes to create a connected cargo supply chain – use centralised datasets; capture real-time data by securely integrating mobility, IoT and data automation; and use AI and predictive analytics for improved visibility, efficiency and security.

• Use centralised datasets The cargo supply chain is complex with many entities involved in the delivery process, including booking agents, airlines, customs, freight forwarders, and road/rail transport. Each uses separate forms (often paper) and manual processes (such as phone calls) – creating out-of-date data, inaccuracies, opportunities for fraud and hindering end-to-end tracking.

Buyers and sellers must move their business to online e-commerce platforms – which can be their own in-house platform or one that spans a community of forwarders, airlines, general sales agents and handlers,

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such as Unisys’ Digi-Portal. Such real-time platforms enable buyers to interact with automated real-time inventory and not rely on stored data.

In addition, growth in consumer online purchases has not only increased small parcel deliveries, it has created an expectation for faster deliveries and where customers can easily track their deliveries.

Real-time data, used across the supply chain, enables greater visibility and traceability of shipments.

The good news is that this transformation is very achievable: with 63% penetration of e-AWB in the cargo globally, the industry is well poised to move to centralised e-AWB based centralised datasets in the next 12-18 months.

And as eight of the top ten countries of origin for e-AWBs are in Asia, and five of the six top airports of origin are Asian, we can expect that this region, the ‘world’s manufacturing bowl’, will lead the way.

• Capture real-time data Capture real-time data by securely integrating mobility, IoT and data automation to make updates on the spot and exchange information faster to reduce the time that cargo is left on the ground.

Asian cargo markets compete against each other to be seen as easy to do business with, yet only Japan, Singapore and Hong Kong/ China rank in the top 20 of The World Bank’s Logistics Performance Index. Reducing costly shipment idle time is key.

Unisys estimates that, on average, cargo is in the air for only 15% of its total delivery time – for the remainder it is on the ground.

The industry should aim to cut idle time to around 50%.

In a secure connected cargo supply chain, information flows automatically and mobile devices, wearables, sensors, voice enabled

SPECIAL REPORT: IT INNOVATION

commands, robots and drones enable staff to process shipments on the spot, updating data in real-time; weigh bridges automatically exchange data with systems preventing data errors and fraud; and IoT enabled sensors on shipments proactively alert cargo systems and staff if a shipment has been left behind, in the wrong location, or is distressed.

In ‘smart warehouses’, drones augment air cargo transport and help the workforce process more shipments to optimise warehouse real estate for a better return on investment. Imagine an operator talking to a device to execute an action or a robot performing repeatable actions more often such as warehouse inventory checks.

Some stakeholders are actually already doing something like this using sensors to track vehicle movements to update end customers on the status of their delivery and alert operators to take swift action to avoid movement blockages. But adoption is fragmented and an industry-wide holistic approach is needed to transform the whole supply chain.

• Use AI and predictive analytics for improved visibility, efficiency and security More accessible and accurate cargo records also help manage, process and track cargo, particularly sensitive items like medicine or food, which must be stored at certain temperatures.

Artificial intelligence powered by predictive analytics can help freight forwarders to ingest and analyse data in real-time, to determine if sensitive shipments require attention or if shipping conditions need to be modified. Drones and robots can then quickly reach shipments to take preventive action to avoid distress.

Predictive analytics can also generate data to enable airlines to better plan their routes, avoid inclement weather and validate the

security of shipments. And real-time visibility into shipments also helps locate misplaced items. Integrated with such targeting tools, the connected cargo approach would improve the clearance and tracking of shipments from loading to arrival.

Finally, moving to a digital data-based cargo supply chain enables the integration of advanced security information and event management (SIEM) tools, such as the Unisys Stealth platform with automated Dynamic Isolation, to protect customer information and shipment data from being accessed or modified by unauthorised parties, preventing data theft and cargo fraud.

Biometric-based identity management, such as fingerprints, face scans or voice recognition can be used to verify the identity of customers and drivers who drop off/pick up freight to ensure that goods get into the right hands more securely and efficiently than if they had undergone a manual check.

At an industry level, IATA has outlined a vision for an efficient air cargo industry relying on full paperless processes and smart data sharing, securely identifying the real customer, enabling innovative and value-added services to its customers.

It is supporting the required transformation by modernising air cargo standards and exploring new technologies to assess their potential impacts and use within the air cargo supply chain.

Arguably, this is good business sense as a connected cargo ecosystem based on centralised real-time data extracted from the AWB will streamline, automate and transform processes right from booking through to billing and delivery, enabling greater accuracy, speed, visibility and security for the airline and a better service and experience for their cargo clients.

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AIRPORT DESIGN

Putting people first: MCO’s planned new Palm Court (©Fentress Architects).

LAX’s Tom Bradley International Terminal (© Lawrence Anderson).

Human touch

Curtis Fentress, founder and principal in charge of design at Fentress Architects, considers the importance of building people friendly terminals that enhance passenger journeys.

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uch is written about the human need for connection and the resulting social, emotional, even economic benefits it affords.

In fact, in 2018, the World Economic Forum published Why the Secret to Success is Human Connection, which drew from numerous studies, and concludes that “if business is about growing relationships, then connection is at the root.”

This is certainly true in the field of aviation, which is inherently driven by the human need to connect.

Airlines, passenger terminals and airport complexes were not only conceived to facilitate travel, but also to enhance the journey. After all, in addition to connecting upon arrival, humans desire connection along the way.

Today, more than 4.3 billion passengers are transported globally on commercial airlines each year. Additionally, more than 1.2 million people – as of 2013 – work at airports in the United States alone.

Over the past 40 years, Fentress Architects has become a global expert at designing physical spaces that support and facilitate human connection and interaction. Indeed, our airport projects alone have garnered over 90 awards, many of which are a direct testament to the power and success of humancentred design.

Two prime examples are Denver International Airport’s (DEN) Passenger Terminal Complex and Incheon International Airport (ICN). DEN ranked in the top 10 of the World’s Best Large Airports, as determined by Skytrax, for six out of the last eight years.

While ICN ranked the Best Airport Worldwide in ACI’s Airport Service Quality (ASQ) customer excellence awards for 11 consecutive years (2005-2016).

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Orlando International Airport Orlando International Airport’s (MCO) South Terminal Complex, which is under construction and on schedule to open in 2021 is one of our current projects in the US. Orlando is among the top 30 busiest airports in the world and the gateway to Central Florida’s thriving business community, theme parks including the Walt Disney World Resort, miles of spectacular beaches, and NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.

With over 75 million business and leisure visitors last year (topping New York and Las Vegas), first impressions are paramount.

So, with the help of baggage conveyance technology developed in Europe, Fentress was able to flip the arrival experience.

Arriving travellers will now be directed to a voluminous light-filled space, which is naturally orientating and offers a moment of repose.

Catering to passengers’ innate needs, easy access to restrooms and concessions in a pleasant environment, especially upon disembarking the plane, is rejuvenating and therein, helps facilitate connection.

Departing travellers will have a similarly pleasant experience replete with opportunities to connect both in person and virtually.

From intuitive parking and drop-off areas to a new ticketing hall designed for flexibility and fitted-out with kiosks, outstanding customer service will help travelers feel well attended to. Security is designed to be similarly intuitive, orderly, and responsive.

Palm Court and Town Square – two keystone civic spaces within Orlando’s South Terminal – will lie just beyond security and be linked by a sky-lit pedestrian boulevard interspersed with plazas containing an array of amenities and entertainment.

Palm Court, the grandest of these spaces, will house a gardenlike setting that combines informal lounge seating, international retail, and dynamic media installations.

AIRPORT DESIGN

SJC’s Björn Schülke’s Space Observer (© Nick Merrick and Hedrich Blessing).

These installations will disseminate flight information, highlight Orlando’s many theme parks and outdoor recreational opportunities, and feature uploaded and pre-screened personal posts from family vacations.

En route to their gate, travellers will experience Windows on Orlando. Comprised of large interactive media screens, this feature will broadcast live feeds from local lakes, beaches, and other areas of natural beauty. On occasion, these screens may even feature live footage from the Kennedy Space Center.

In the not too distant future, the MCO experience will offer travellers and employees alike another vehicle for physical and personal connection: a passenger rail line and its accompanying station.

LAX’s Tom Bradley International Terminal The transformative design for Los Angeles International Airport’s (LAX) Tom Bradley International Terminal demonstrates a qualitatively different kind of airport facility.

While amenities appeal to traveller sensibilities, we know that truly exceptional passenger experiences – especially those that fosters human connection – benefit from environments that elevate the wellbeing of both travellers and staff. As a result, the Bradley Terminal is replete with a myriad of calm, inviting, and fully accessible spaces that welcome any and all who have the time and interest to make use of them.

Meanwhile, all who pass through the space are bathed in daylight and afforded expansive views to the outdoors as well as a variety of integrated media displays, which project kinetic video installations of light and destination information as well as art and entertainment.

Since the grand re-opening five years ago, LAX has been recognised as having the Best Overall Customer Service Program among large airports by ACI-NA (2018); and ranked among the Top 10 Best of the US’s Big Airports by the Wall Street Journal (2018).

Mineta San Jose International Airport Airport World has called Norman Y Mineta San Jose International Airport (SJC) one of the world’s the “most technologically advanced

airports”, which is appropriate given its role as ambassador to the Silicon Valley region. Among its plentiful deployments of technology is an extensive public art programme.

Fentress Architects worked with SJC’s administration and Art + Technology program to align the art master plan with the architectural master plan. The result has been extraordinarily successful, particularly in helping people feel a connection to the art, building, experience, region, and one another.

Pieces such as Björn Schülke’s Space Observer, a permanent glossy white 26-foot-tall kinetic interactive sculpture, reinforce intuitive wayfinding as they demarcate intersections and pathways.

While Dreaming F.I.D.S, a dynamic aquatic ecosystem by artists Ben Hooker and Shona Kitchen, and Convey, an artwork

by Banny Banerjee, Matt Gorbet and Susan LK Gorbet, which projects the captured emotions of departing passengers on arriving baggage, seek direct engagement with the public.

The most prominent and integrated of all the installations is Christian Moeller’s Hands, which covers the 1,200-foot-long, seven story tall east façade of the terminal’s Consolidated Rental Car Garage.

Standard pre-cast concrete was traded for two layers of architectural metal fabric to hold 350,000-plus disks on which the hands of 57 Silicon Valley residents – from a baggage claim handler to a founding CEO of Yahoo, a tamale maker, and a surgeon — are printed.

The fact SJC continues to garner top awards is a testament to the success of its human-centred, connection-driven design.

In fact, American City Business Journals recently ranked it the best-run airport in the country based on nine criteria that included ease, access and speed of travel. SJC was also finished top in the 2017 JD Power and Associates’ North American Airport Satisfaction Study of medium airports.

These and more awards mirror anecdotal evidence from travellers, including talk-show host Jimmy Kimmel, who tweeted: “Whomever runs @FlySJC San Jose airport should run the country. Nice people, quick baggage, even clean bathrooms!”

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EVENTS: SMART AIRPORTS & REGIONS

SMART talk Joe Bates looks back at some of the highlights of the recent SMART Airports & Regions Conference and Exhibition in El Paso.

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irport leader panels moderated by CNN’s Nick Valencia helped draw a crowd of around 300 delegates to the opening sessions of the SMART Airports & Regions Conference and Exhibition in El Paso, Texas, USA. In the spotlight in the first ‘CNN SMART 360’ panel session were El Paso International Airport (ELP) aviation director, Monica Lombraña; Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL) general manager, John Selden; Metropolitan Airports Commission CEO, Bryan Ryks; and St Louis Lambert International Airport (STL) director and CEO, Rhonda Hamm-Niebruegge.

While Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA) managing director, Lance Lyttle; Denver International Airport (DEN) senior vice president, Stacey Stegman; Edmonton International Airport (EIA) president and CEO, Tom Ruth; and Portland International Airport (PDX) director of airport operations, Daren Griffin, were in the hot seat in CNN SMART 360 Part Two. Both panels covered a wide range of topics ranging from embracing new technology; the importance of engaging with the local business communities; the difficulty of attracting and retaining new staff; to how they would like people to view their respective airports in five to ten years’ time.

ATL’s Selden, whose airport remains the world’s busiest handling 107.3 million passengers in 2018, told delegates that ensuring that his gateway was equipped to stay ahead of demand and recruiting new staff were two of his biggest challenges.

“Atlanta is growing very fast and there’s no sign of a slowing down,” said Selden, revealing that the airport expects to handle close to 110 million passengers this year, generating an impressive $80 billion in economic activity.

“Our strength is our connectivity. We’re the busiest airport in the world, and we keep growing, and one way we can handle rising demand, and maintain service levels, is through embracing innovation,” added Selden.

“Facial recognition technology, for example, would mitigate the need to show your ID countless times during the airport journey.”

He stated that finding ways to integrate new technologies to make passenger journeys smoother and faster, and provide improved levels of customer service, was a goal of ATL as it would help it get more people through its facilities and avoid, or at least delay, the need to build costly new infrastructure.

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All images courtesy of Aviation Media/Tadej Bernik.

On the difficulty ATL and most airports currently face in attracting talented new staff, Selden said: “Attracting talent is probably our greatest challenge,” a statement he based on the competition faced from other industries, the processes staff have to go through to get an airport ID to work at an airport and the fact that airport jobs are not always among the best paid compared to the private sector.

He believes that industry wide challenges in the US include the need to make smarter use of the country’s airspace to allow airports to safely and more efficiently handle more flights.

And in response to what he hoped people would be saying about ATL in five to 10 years’ time, Selden, said: “It’s really crowded here, but we moved fast. I’d also hope they say, my flights on time, and I’d want our employees to say we’re really proud of the airport.”

Talking about the growth of Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport (MSP), Ryks noted that Delta’s second largest hub handled a record 38 million passengers in 2018 and is an economic powerhouse for the region, accounting for around 87,000 jobs and $16 billion in economic impact.

He revealed that building up air services remains a primary focus, and from MSP’s perspective this meant talking to the business community on a regular basis to find out “not only where they fly to today, but where they will be going in three to five years’ time”, to give his gateway the heads up on possible new services.

St Louis Lambert’s Hamm-Niebruegge agreed with Selden about the empowering ability of new technology, especially when it comes

EVENTS: SMART AIRPORTS & REGIONS

to the collection of data that allows airports to better serve their passengers, but cautioned that the rapid advancement in technology meant that a “new state-of-the-art system” could quickly become out of date.

On the subject of working with economic partners in the local community, she said: “As an airport, if you are not tied into the local community, you are going to lose,” noting how the previously disconnected St Louis business community came to her airport’s aid after the 2011 tornado cause widespread damage to its terminal.

She also revealed that the airport’s economic impact had grown from $4 billion to the local St Louis community in 2013 to closer to $7 billion today, with Lambert directly employing 7,000 staff.

El Paso’s Lombraña talked about her gateway’s pioneering development of non-aviation related commercial facilities on the airport and how this ensured that non-aviation activity today accounts for 72% of the ELP’s revenues.

She noted that El Paso International Airport generated $2.2 billion per annum in economic activity and was directly responsible for 16,000 jobs. Lombraña also touched on how expanding El Paso’s air connectivity to other US cities remained her biggest challenge.

In the second CNN 360 SMART panel, Edmonton’s Ruth highlighted some of the impressive developments going on at his airport today as the gateway looks to decrease its dependency on aeronautical revenues, boost its commercial income and cement its status as one of the region’s most important economic generators.

Seattle-Tacoma’s Lyttle stated that the ambition of the Port of Seattle is to drive economic growth by creating 100,000 new jobs in the local community over the next 25 years.

He admitted that the vision was a big one, but believed that it would happen and that route development at Sea-Tac was a key way of achieving the goal, especially as Seattle is home to a number of huge international companies ranging from Amazon, Boeing and Starbucks to Microsoft, in addition to being a major port for cruise ships.

He said: “We work very closely with the airlines, especially Alaska, to develop our connectivity as new routes create prosperity for all.”

With regards to the future development of Sea-Tac, Lyttle admitted that it was a constant battle with the local communities to win support for any projects that supported his gateway’s growth, despite its hugely positive impact on Seattle and the entire region.

“Our annual economic impact is $23.4 billion, but we still get a lot of resistance from the local communities who are opposed to any growth at the airport,” said Lyttle.

Stegman felt that coping with growth is Denver International Airport’s biggest challenge, although she admitted that with six runways already and enough land to add another six, her gateway was blessed compared to most other space constrained US airports.

She noted that DEN is the fifth busiest airport in the US with an annual economic impact of $26 billion and that it is currently in the midst of a terminal expansion programme that will add 30% more gates.

The airport’s good relationship with the local business communities ensured that it was “joined at the hip” with the chamber of commerce and other organisations dedicated to promoting and developing Denver and the surrounding region as an area to set up and do business in, added Stegman.

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EVENTS: SMART AIRPORTS & REGIONS talked about his gateway’s growing reputation as the economic engine for North Texas, while Aerotropolis Atlanta Alliance president and CEO, Shannon James, reminded everyone about the continued public-private partnership (PPP) driven transformation of land around Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.

The session also led to the sharpest intake of breath of the day when PDX’s Griffin revealed that the threat of seismic activity arguably posed one of his airport’s greatest challenges due to the location of the 700-mile long Cascadia subduction zone just off of the coast of California, Oregon and Washington states.

“About 10 years ago we became aware of the type of seismic activity we should be preparing for, which is an earthquake in the magnitude of 9.0 about 50 miles off of the Oregon coast,” said Griffin.

“This would represent a major plate shift and result in a massive tsunami. The ground is really going to shake, and it is supposed to happen around every 250 to 300 million years and we’re on year 319 right now. So, there is this constant pressure to build resiliency into all new infrastructure and every aspect of our operations.

“But how do you get a runway to survive that? It is scary, but now that we are aware of the risks we can plan for them and hopefully minimise the impact on PDX so that we would be back up and running within a few months rather than possibly years.”

Like Seden and Ryks, Griffin said that attracting and keeping new talent was a challenge as unemployment in Portland was currently around 3%. He added that PDX’s ambition in this regard was to create an environment where “new entrants can see a clear career path to the top jobs and salaries of over $100,000 a year”.

Delegates had earlier been welcomed to the event by Lombraña and conference chair, and president and CEO of MXD Development Strategists, Chris LeTourneur, who took the opportunity to talk about the growing economic importance of El Paso and the “phenomenal” amount of cross-border trade taking place in the region before highlighting four key trends driving the development of SMART Airports across the world – collaboration, innovative partnerships, being ready to go, and the rise of mid-sized airports.

Next up were sessions on ‘Airport Investment, Governance and Stakeholder Cooperation’ and ‘Next Airports & Smart Cities – Preparing for 2030 and Beyond’, both moderated by LeTourneur.

His panellists in the former session included DFW’s John Terrell; Charlotte Douglas’ Rebecca Simensen; Aerotropolis Atlanta Alliance’s Shannon James; Hubstart Paris Region Alliance’s Elisabeth Le Masson; and Borderplex Alliance’s Jon Barela.

All outlined a host of innovative developments and in some cases pioneering schemes taking place at and around their gateways. John Terrell, DFW’s vice president for commercial development, for example,

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Terrell said: “DFW has played its part in creating an amazing economic success story in the Dallas and Fort Worth region, which if ranked as a country, would be ranked 28th in the world in terms of its GDP. Of all the domestic and international companies that have relocated to our region in the last 20 years, every single one of them has put DFW as their number one or two reason for moving there.”

He stated that DFW’s international route development was the catalyst for much of the recent growth – it now offers non-stop flights to 63 destinations – and is the primary reason why the Texas gateway is expecting a huge spike in traffic this year with an all-time high of 73.4 million passengers predicted to have passed through its facilities by year-end.

The total would be an incredible 4.4 million more passengers than DFW handled in 2018. The upturn in traffic has led to it unveiling plans for a new 24-gate Terminal F, which is slated for completion in 2025.

“The gigantic increase in the number of passengers we expect to handle this year clearly shows that we are doing something right for both the region and as an airport,” remarked Terrell.

“Every one of our international wide-body flights generates approximately $250 million in economic impact to the DFW region every year. That is the equivalent to a Super Bowl for every direct flight.”

DFW also boasts one of the most ambitious commercial land development use plans at a US airport, which now includes the creation of Passport Park, a mixed-use industrial complex on a 600 acre site at south end of the airport, and a North Destination District boasting offices, high-end hospitality, retail and entertainment facilities.

An exciting and eventful first day ended with a Gala Evening at Topgolf El Paso where food, music and dancing was also on the agenda as well as trying to drive/chip/shank micro-chipped golf balls into giant targets dotted across a driving range.

Day 2 was split into three separate steams with Stream A featuring IT innovation and customer service sessions, while Stream B focused on commercial strategies and non-aeronautical revenue generation, and Stream C on infrastructure design and development.

EVENTS: SMART AIRPORTS & REGIONS

In a session called ‘Redefining the infrastructure master plan’, LoneStar Airport Holdings LLC’s CEO, Jeff Pearse, essentially outlined the benefits of PPP projects and how US airports could benefit from private investors funding and developing individual facilities or entire airports like San Juan–Luis Muñoz Marin International Airport in Puerto Rico.

Pearse, who used Austin Bergstrom’s South Terminal as an example of the successful PPP development of an individual facility at a US airport, said: “With America’s airports facing more than $128 billion in new infrastructure needs across the system and a debt burden of $91.6 billion from past projects, it is time to find the means to rebuild our nation’s transportation infrastructure and improve the passenger experience for millions of travellers.

“We know that it’s a challenge for airports and we know that traditional funding mechanisms are never going to be able to keep up with the escalating costs of construction on airports. So, if experts say that the existing funding system fails to meet the infrastructure needs for modernising and expanding airport capacity, perhaps it is time for another approach?”

He was, however, quick to point out that PPPs may not be for all, but noted that under the right conditions they have proven to be a successful way of developing airports across the globe, and felt that there was much more to come from such projects in the US in the future.

Steam A’s conference sessions ended on an uplifting and positive note with some of the industry’s best-known customer service champions telling delegates about a number of innovative ways airports and airlines across the globe are raising the bar on service levels.

The session, moderated by ACI’s manager for business development and customer care (ASQ), Sevda Fevzi, featured the ever-ebullient Karen Ellis from San Antonio International Airport and Los Angeles World Airport’s chief experience officer, Barbara Yamamoto.

Introducing the topic in the session entitled ‘Delivering a unique customer centric experience’, Fevzi reminded delegates about the many different components that airports have to take onboard to ensure a good airport experience for passengers.

The list – which she called ‘the ingredients for successful airport customer experience management’ – includes finding out more about the wants and needs of customers and sharing this information with staff; creating an airport culture based on the delivery of customer service excellence; and engaging all airport stakeholders in a collaborative approach to delivering “a great customer experience”.

She noted that ACI World’s Airport Service Quality (ASQ) programmes are designed to help airports achieve customer service excellence, and today include the ASQ Arrivals and ASQ Departures surveys, the Employee Survey for Customer Experience and the ASQ Commercial Survey.

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Ellis, San Antonio’s chief customer experience officer, spoke about her airport’s award winning approach to customer service, choosing to focus on the role technology plays in ensuring high passenger satisfaction levels at her gateway.

She told delegates that understanding the varying needs of different passengers and recognising the various digital touchpoints on the passenger journey had allowed her airport to concentrate on providing customers with the facilities and services they want/expect when they wanted them.

Yamamoto’s presentation was on employee engagement, which she put in perspective by revealing that 55,000 badged staff work at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), including 3,600 from LAWA, which in 2018 handled 87.5 million passengers.

LAWA’s philosophy, she said, was that in order to improve the ‘guest experience’ at LAX, it first had to start with its employees, as “to get happy and loyal customers, you first had to have happy employees”.

This strategy, noted Yamamoto, led to airport staff helping draft the airport’s ‘LAXceptional Xperience’ goals, and the creation of a Guest Experience Partners Council comprising representatives from LAWA and the main stakeholder groups (airlines, concessionaires, service providers and government agencies), which meets on monthly basis to discuss the airport wide issues that are most impacting on the guest experience.

Council representatives also “walk through” LAX’s nine terminals twice a month to see for themselves how each facility is faring, and this has led to the creation of action plans for each terminal, which at the moment has over 400 items on it.

And input from the council has been used to launch the LAXceptional People Plan for the training and development of staff and introduction of a rewards and recognition programme.

Yamamoto said: “I want to leave you with this lasting thought. We can all have smart facilities, with the best technologies and coolest innovations, but we shouldn’t lose sight of the human touch provided by our employees as airports are stressful places and caring attitudes can really make the difference and take the edge of a stressful situation.”

Prior to the conference, delegates had the opportunity to buy some cowboys boots, visit the world’s largest inland desalination plant and climb aboard – and take selfies in – the one and only Super Guppy at EPIA’s on-site NASA facility during an airport tour, while the more energetic ones took part in a Pre-Conference Golf Tournament.

The morning tour was followed by a pre-conference AeroParker Workshop before the Welcome Reception and the opening of the Exhibition Hall, which this year was filled by more than 55 exhibitors, sponsors and AW supporters from close to 20 countries.

MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS

Market appeal How do you create an innovative brand experience for growing airports? Big Vision’s founder and CEO, Joe Quinn, provides some thoughts and reflects on the successful rebranding of Orlando Sanford International Airport.

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ailed as the safest way to travel, aviation continues to grow with ACI World expecting global passenger numbers to double by 2034 and exceed 20.9 billion by 2040.

With market demand forecasted to increase, primary and secondary airports worldwide have an opportunity to increase their market share by keeping pace with industry trends.

Branding Singapore Changi (SIN), Incheon (ICN), Indianapolis (IND), Delhi-Indira Gandhi (DEL), Toronto Pearson (YYZ), Mumbai-Chhatrapati Shivaji (BOM), Dubai (DXB) and Doha (DOH) are just a few of the airports that are traditionally ranked by passengers as among the best airports in the world in ACI’s Airport Service Quality (ASQ) customer excellence programme.

One thing many of these award-winning airports have in common is a strong brand. Indeed, Doha’s Hamad International Airport enjoyed a two-year partnership with a brand consultancy before releasing its new brand and revamped website to the world in 2014. A year later it was a top five airport in ACI’s ASQ survey.

While Dubai Airports recently launched an exciting new brand for DXB, which it believes reflects the company’s transition from airport operator to a consumer led firm “committed to making the world’s busiest international airport, the world’s best”.

While these are major airports processing tens of millions of passengers a year, there are still lessons to be learned for regional airports.

Between the digital and physical experiences these major airports provide, they have effectively become a destination in their own right. This has arguably never been more important, as with a growing number of flight options to choose from, passengers are starting to pick flights based on the destination airport.

In other words, brand loyalty makes a difference. If regional airports want to compete for market share by stealing budget-conscious passengers from major airports, they need to accelerate their branding efforts.

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User experience Airports build loyalty by providing for their passengers’ needs and wants. Many focus on the physical experience, modernising terminals and streamlining security checks, but the digital experience makes airports memorable as well.

Between the lines, tight schedules, and cost, air travel can be stressful. Passengers need key information like directions, departure times, and flight status at their fingertips. By providing these features on a mobile responsive website, airports can optimise user experience (UX) and foster brand loyalty.

With a simple and fresh design, the London Luton Airport website provides a mobile-friendly, customised user experience. To help passengers get to and from LLA, the website uses a decision tree with friendly questions to funnel travellers to the answers they are seeking.

Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) website compliance In the US, in 2018, there were 2,285 ADA website lawsuits filed in US federal courts, a 181% increase from 2017. As the risk of lawsuits increases for all businesses, airport websites need to be made ADA compliant.

Spurred on by these lawsuits, accessibility has become a critical element of a website’s user experience. The goal of UX design should be to make a website accessible to anyone, disabled or not, regardless of their hardware, software, language, location or ability.

By incorporating ADA standards into their website code, airports can provide an improved user experience for everyone and avoid potential lawsuits.

ULCC model Ultra Low Cost Carriers (ULCCs) like Allegiant, Frontier and Spirit constitute roughly 12% of US airline departing seats. This represents an approximate 5% growth in ULCC air travel from mid-2018.

The ULCC model makes flying more affordable and, therefore, competes with users’ discretionary spending. Allegiant’s model,

MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS for example, makes air travel more accessible by combining low-cost fares to secondary airports in tourist destinations with high-value vacation packages.

As the ULCC model continues to grow, we can expect to see related growth at secondary airports. But it’s high reward, high risk. If traffic drops to unprofitable numbers for the ULCC, it could reduce flights or worse. This means regional airports that are dependent on ULCC flights need to build brands that can continue to attract and retain customers.

Client challenges Florida’s Orlando Sanford International Airport (SFB), a secondary airport, accommodated just over three million passengers in 2018, representing three-fold growth since 2012.

SFB has experienced the benefits of the ULCC model first-hand, with Allegiant passengers making up 85% of their total passengers.

As a burgeoning, regional airport pursuing more ULCC passengers and competing with Orlando’s major airport for tourism air travel, SFB needed to be repositioned with a strong, distinct brand as a destination airport and to optimise its website solutions.

Brand repositioning We created a modern, scalable brand for SFB to reposition them in the market. Their key audience consists of families and seniors travelling domestically for leisure on a budget.

To target this audience more effectively, we re-engineered their brand identity, choosing an energetic, yet mature, colour palette that feels very ‘Florida’ and creating key graphical elements to be woven throughout all brand touchpoints.

For example, the new brand has scaled to some of the airport’s secondary services, like a shuttle to Universal Studios called the Attraction Express.

We also established a new messaging strategy, communicating SFB’s three key points-of-difference across the brand: 1. Affordable flights to exciting destinations 2. Proximity to Central Florida’s hottest attractions 3. First-rate convenience By balancing inspirational copy on top travel destinations with informative content about travelling with families (and/or special needs), we reached SFB’s audience where they are and positioned SFB as a gateway to paradise.

All in all, the new design and messaging directions create a unified brand experience for SFB’s passengers that raises awareness about each of its key points-of-difference.

Website solutions We created a modern web solution to enhance passengers’ digital experience at the airport and to streamline SFB’s back-end processes.

Our team factored ADA compliance into the UX design and development, so all passengers can have an optimal digital experience.

Delivering a ‘Level AA’ ADA accessible website was particularly important for SFB whose site is interconnected with their serviceoffering. With this solution, the airport is now protected against future website accessibility litigation.

Even non-disabled passengers benefit from their accessible website, whether they’re experiencing situational limitations like bright sunlight or temporary disabilities like a broken arm.

The website solution also expands SFB’s self-service passenger journey. For departing flights, users may require quick access to a mobile version of their flight status or directions to their gate or a diet-friendly restaurant. For arriving flights, users may want to learn about popular attractions in close proximity to SFB. Featuring interactive airport maps and a modern flight checker, SFB’s new website helps passengers enjoy a smooth travel experience.

Plus, with a mobile responsive design, travellers can get answers immediately on their phones.

If passengers have additional questions during their visit, the website features a pull-out search bar with quick links to the most critical information. Each of these elements help provide a more efficient self-service experience for passengers.

The new website streamlines SFB’s back-end processes. Thanks to a customised content management system (CSM) solution, various stakeholders at SFB can easily update content, post career openings, enhance content for Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), and more, which helps them communicate more effectively with passengers, business partners, and the local community.

Future outlook Air travel is currently growing by 4.1% every year, on average, and ULCCs can continue to create fast growth in regional airports. Add to this SFB’s location near one of the world’s largest tourism markets, and you have a recipe for accelerated growth if the right industry trends and brand solutions are capitalised on.

With a distinct, unified brand and a modern website solution that can be leveraged as a branding and marketing tool, Orlando Sanford International Airport is better positioned to capture a larger share of an expanding market.

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ASSET MANAGEMENT

Asset protection

Charlotte Douglas International Airport’s stormwater management solution will help ensure its long-term growth and development, write HDR’s Ronald Geiger and Damian Gaiski-Weitz.

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ith $2.5 billion in projects planned through 2035, Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT) is in the middle of a massive expansion and renovation programme.

Indeed, over the coming 15 years, passengers can expect larger concourses with more gates, wider roadways, a bigger terminal and a fourth runway.

All of that work means that the airport will be adding a lot of new paved (impervious) area. And, as a result, its stormwater management strategies required a new approach to accommodate the increased run-off that will follow.

HDR assisted the airport in creating an innovative “water quality credit strategy” that bundles all of the stormwater projects under one umbrella instead of its previous piecemeal approach.

In the past, CLT approached stormwater planning on the individual project level. Each project was evaluated for its stormwater needs, then an appropriately sized stormwater control effort was permitted and constructed alongside.

This project-by-project approach had the potential to constrain future development. It could also mean an added burden because of the maintenance of many more stormwater facilities.

“We’ve built a lot of independent facilities for stand-alone purposes in the last 35 years at CLT and it has become quite a challenge to manage all these detention features,” admits says CLT’s environmental manager, Jimmy Jordan. “Our impervious surface area has increased 850% since 1982.”

HDR led the drafting of a more proactive and comprehensive stormwater management strategy in 2013. In 2018, it was updated for the next five years. A key consideration in the development of that strategy was minimising the impact and number of new facilities.

Space availability for stormwater controls is not a current issue at the airport, but as development continues, space constraints could limit the placement of stormwater projects while removing valuable space for expansion.

What emerged from these concerns was an innovative treatment trading strategy. By calculating total treatment demand, all existing impervious areas at the airport were considered to be equal and available for stormwater management (water quality treatment, for instance) within a given watershed.

That means an acre of existing impervious area on the east side of the airport, for example, may be treated in lieu of treating the new acre of impervious development created by construction.

This trading, in effect, allows the airport to maximise the potential treatment at selected locations. Stormwater is now managed within four distinct watersheds that cover the airport’s more than 5,500 acres of land.

The location of newly constructed basins was centralised downstream of planned projects and excess capacity was built in to treat and control the rate of run-off. As future projects are completed, the airport can tap that capacity instead of constructing new stormwater facilities.

For example, on the south side of the airport, a new regional detention basin proposed in the 2018 management plan will handle all of the construction planned in the area through 2023 and beyond.

Building the excess capacity is an initial step. In order to take full advantage of it, the airport also needed a robust method for tracking it. To help facilitate these exchanges and track their impacts, CLT’s stormwater plan includes an ESRI geo-database that captures all the supporting data in a single electronic location.

As regulations change, priorities shift or unforeseen constraints are realised, the geo-database can quickly re-evaluate stormwater management needs. It can also be used to track the evolution of the airport master plan as projects are constructed and associated treatment options are implemented.

Jordan says: “We recognise that our airport is physically constrained by major travel corridors, and we must re-focus our strategies now to ensure we’re utilising our existing real estate footprint for necessary airport developments that are being supported by balanced comprehensive stormwater management strategies.”

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WBP NEWS

The latest news from ACI’s World Business Partners

body text New F&B outlets open at Singapore Changi Asian high street favourite, Tai Cheong Bakery, and Archipelago Craft Brew are the latest new additions to Singapore Changi’s F&B offering.

Introduced in partnership with the SSP Group and located landside in Terminal 3, Tai Cheong Bakery is one of Hong Kong’s most popular traditional bakeries with more than 20 outlets across Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan.

And, according to SSP, the new unit has been tailored to meet the needs of the busy airport environment, with a takeaway counter allowing customers to quickly “grab and go”.

In contrast, Archipelago Craft Brew House is a new concept developed by SSP in partnership with the Archipelago Brewery by Asia Pacific Brewery, which has been creating handcrafted, speciality beers in Singapore since 2006.

LAX super fast Boingo Wi-Fi

According to internet speed test company Ookla, the Wi-Fi speeds at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) continue to grow and its average download speeds are among the best in North America.

Ookla reveals that Wi-Fi speeds on LAX’s free Boingo Wireless supplied network now top 70.6Mbps – an increase of 541% since 2016, when the average download speed on LAX Wi-Fi was about 11Mbps.

Average upload speeds on the LAX network now reach 87.39Mbps, says Ookla, which tested 51 of the largest airports in the US and Canada during the first half of 2019.

Based on separate LAX testing, airport guests can often experience Wi-Fi speeds in excess of 100Mbps thanks to recent improvement projects designed to enhance the passenger experience and accommodate increased traffic.

“Free, fast and accessible Wi-Fi is one of the top priorities of the modern traveller, and at LAX we are focused on continuous improvement in our speed and our ranking for our service,” says

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The Terminal 2 airside bar serves Archipelago Brewery’s range of award-winning craft beers, including Singapore Blonde Ale and Bohemian Lager.

Mark Angela, CEO of SSP Asia Pacific, said: “Both brands have a strong heritage and are highly regarded by local customers, and their use of original recipes and flavours will create a sense of place among international travellers looking for truly authentic experiences.”

Teo Chew Hoon, the Changi Group’s senior vice president for airside concessions, enthused: “SSP continues to wow Changi Airport’s passengers with their innovative concepts and offerings.

“Their new Archipelago Bar takes the passenger experience to a new level as they marry their unique craft beer flavours together with Singapore’s signature salted egg yolk offerings, creating an all-new blend of tastes for locals and visitors to enjoy.”

Barbara Yamamoto, chief experience officer with LAX operator, Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA).

“Being able to easily access digital content means our guests can curate their own airport experience and access the many amenities we offer, including our digital marketplace.”

LAWA reveals that Wi-Fi demand at LAX grew by nearly 40% over the past year, with more than half of all passengers now relying on connectivity for their smartphones, laptops, tablets and other devices.

LAX worked with wireless provider Boingo to upgrade Wi-Fi service with faster speeds and more coverage and capacity. It previously introduced Passpoint Wi-Fi technology in its networks, which offers a seamless and secure handoff from congested cellular networks to a trusted Wi-Fi network.

Wi-Fi is available throughout the public space in all LAX terminals and is part of a continued investment in technology and improvements that are putting the airport experience in the hands of travellers.

WBP NEWS DroneShield

Sustainability and resilience award for LaGuardia Terminal B project

Skanska, lead partner in the Skanska-Walsh construction joint venture for the redevelopment of LaGuardia Airport’s Terminal B, reports that the Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure (ISI) has awarded the project Envision Platinum Certification.

Envision recognises projects that lead the industry in their approach to sustainable and resilient infrastructure development, and Envision Platinum is the highest level of recognition.

The Terminal B redevelopment – of which the design and construction is led by the Skanska-Walsh Joint Venture – is the first project to achieve recognition from ISI at any level under its newly updated Envision v3 framework.

This new framework evaluates projects across five categories and 64 sustainability criteria to produce a holistic view of the project’s commitment to leading edge, sustainable practices.

They include traditional factors, such as reducing emissions, recycling materials, and using renewable energy sources, as well as more holistic indicators of social and economic sustainability, such as minimising construction impacts, providing employment opportunities for local residents, resilient design and improving mobility and access.

In terms of reducing waste through the reuse and recycling of materials, Skanska notes that during the demolition of the original Terminal B parking garage, the team was able to recycle 21,604 tons of concrete from the demolition of the original parking structure. Of this recycled concrete, 2,475 tons – roughly five million pounds – were reused on the adjacent job site. Overall, 99.92% of debris removed from the old parking garage was recycled.

Skanska-Walsh also re-used groundwater pumped from excavations to make light weight concrete instead of tapping potable water sources.

“This recognition reflects the passion and commitment of the Port Authority [of New York and New Jersey] and the entire team to deliver an instant landmark and an intelligent investment,” says Beth Heider, Skanska USA’s chief sustainability officer. “As both a construction and long-term development partner, Skanska is proud of Envision’s verification that this project is bringing measurable, long-term benefit to those frequent Terminal B – and to the planet at large.”

The LaGuardia Terminal B project – valued at $5.1 billion (including $4bn in construction value) is the largest public-private partnership in US aviation history. The redevelopment includes a new 35-gate terminal, a Central Hall, a parking garage, related roadways and supporting infrastructure – all with innovative construction phasing, including building over-top of the current operation, to allow the terminal to remain fully functional while under construction.

When complete, the Terminal B promises to offer best-in-class retail, food, beverage, and amenities that will more than double the current number of offerings as well as the word’s first dual pedestrian bridges spanning active aircraft taxi lanes.

Location: London, UK Contact: Mark Ayers E: mark.ayers@droneshield.com W: www.droneshield.com DroneShield is a worldwide leader in drone detection and countermeasure technologies.

The company has developed the pre-eminent drone detection solution that protects people, organisations, and critical infrastructure from intrusion from drones. Its leadership brings world-class expertise in engineering and physics, combined with deep experience in defence, intelligence and aerospace.

DroneShield designs detection and countermeasure systems that use highly specialised technology to achieve levels of precision and sensitivity that are not possible with other methods.

Kusch+Co GmbH Location: Hallenberg, Germany Contact: Ingmar Krupp E: i.krupp@kusch.de W: www.kusch.com Kusch+Co is a German based manufacturer of contract furniture and one of the market leaders for interior solutions at railway and bus stations, ship terminals and airports. Over 240 airports worldwide have been furnished with our airport seating, bench configurations, and lounge furniture. This series, which are specifically designed for these public environments, meet the highest standards with regard to safety, functionality, design, comfort, and utility value.

Add to this our experience and know-how in planning and project management, on which architects and project developers can rely.

Kusch+Co offers the best possible interior design solutions not only for waiting areas, but also for conference rooms, restaurants, counters, tower, offices and service areas.

Grab Location: Houston, TX, USA Contact: Jeff Livney, CEO E: jeff@getbrag.com W: www.getgrab.com Grab, the airport e-commerce platform, powers self-service for airport food & beverage and retail partners. With an omni-channel platform covering mobile and web ordering, self-service kiosks, and order at table technologies, Grab solutions drive incremental revenues and improved financials for partners while improving speed of service and the guest experience.

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49

HUMAN RESOURCES

PEOPLE

matters Utopia or dystopia?

Terri Morrissey and Richard Plenty provide their thoughts on artificial intelligence and robots in the workplace.

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his column is called ‘People Matters’ for a good reason. People remain the key element in organisational success, even in an increasingly technological world. As Mark Littlewood pointed out in The Times (September 8, 2019), ‘Robots are on the rise but never underestimate the human factor.’

Angela Epstein made a similar point when she wrote, also in The Times (September 17, 2019), ‘Human behaviour should be the focus of airport security’.

Both writers make the point that while technological advances can enhance workplace activities, especially high precision and drudge work, the human being cannot (yet) be replaced by artificial intelligence in terms of human interaction, observation, creativity and sense-making.

And while progress is fast in developing automated diagnostic tools which may eventually be more reliable than professional experts, caring, touch and simple everyday tasks such as folding towels and plumping pillows are a long way off.

But with the speed of advance in automation and artificial intelligence, will this state of affairs continue? Should we be concerned that we will all be deskilled and unemployed (the ‘dystopian’ view), or should we welcome technology as a way of freeing us up for better things (a utopian perspective)?

We have a sense of déjà vu about this. We remember being told about the wonderful opportunities of e-mail which would free us of the need for paper, give us oodles of leisure time and free us to pursue more creative and leisurely pursuits. Yet, at the same time, dystopians (including many typists) were more concerned about losing their jobs.

The increasing use of robots is, ironically, bringing this debate back to life. Robots can alleviate routine mundane work; carry out dirty,

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dull and dangerous activities; go to places no human can go to; remotely detonate explosives; deliver parcels; take aerial photographs; scan suspicious items on security checks; load and unload heavy baggage.

These are all positive contributions to making the workplace potentially more human friendly, allowing the rest of us get on with the more creative and innovative jobs. Right?

The downside to this is that these very same helpers could turn into enemies: take over our jobs, rise up and ultimately destroy us. We come from a generation that avidly followed the BBC TV science-fiction series, Dr Who, where the dystopian view of robots prevailed, Daleks, whose only message was “Exterminate”, delivered in an hysterical high-pitched tone.

This is not just the stuff of science fiction.

Some eminent writers, including Stephen Hawkins, have predicted artificial intelligence could become an existential threat to humankind.

So, should our view of the future be one based on optimism or pessimism? Should we hold a benign view of how technology can be used in the workplace or a malevolent view of how it can be manipulated?

Should we consider incorporating ethical and moral values into guidelines for development and usage as Japan, South Korea and China appear to be doing.

In our view, these are not simple ‘yes-no’ questions. Technology is neutral: it is how we use it that matters. Workplaces evolve. The nature of work changes. New skills and knowledge are required to shape as well as adapt to change.

The key is that we need to be in control and in the driving seat, ensuring that workplaces can be rewarding places for people. Otherwise this column may become ‘Robots Matters’ in years to come!

The Carlyle Group’s global airport investment platform, CAG Holdings, has named Dr Gerrard Bushell as its new chair and the executive chair of The New Terminal One Development Project at New York–JFK. He will be responsible for delivering the New Terminal One Development Project at JFK International Airport.

San Antonio’s aviation director, Russ Handy, is to step down at the end of the year.

Handy, who has overseen major construction projects and helped improve connectivity at the Texas gateway, plans to move to the East Coast to spend more time with family and pursue other endeavours.

Jackson Municipal Airport Authority (JMAA) has appointed Patrick ‘Pat’ Minor as the new manager of Hawkins Field Airport. He is a graduate of Jackson State University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Criminal Justice.

He has well over 19 years of aviation experience in law enforcement, airport operations, aviation security, badging and communication.

Torrance Richardson is the new president and CEO of Gerald R Ford International Airport.

Richardson most recently served as executive vice president and chief operating officer of the Columbus Regional Airport Authority, which oversees three airports in central Ohio. During his tenure there, passenger traffic grew by 33% to more than 8.4 million passengers, and freight increased by 91% to more than 300 million pounds.

Brisbane Airport Corporation (BAC) has named Carl Jones as the new head of its aviation development. Canadian Jones joins from Vancouver Airport where he served as director of air service development.

About the authors Dr Richard Plenty and Terri Morrissey run the ACI Airport Human Resources programme and are the authors of’ ‘Uncertainty Rules? Making uncertainty work for you’, to be published by Cork University Press in early 2020.

Contact them through info@thisis.eu

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