Isavia - Safety and cooperation: A digital aviation journey at the heart of the North Atlantic

Safety and security: Injecting digital transformation into the aviation industry

P R O J E C T

PA R T N E R S

B U S I N E S S I N T E RV I E W

Saf

2

fety and cooperation: A digital aviation journey at the heart of the North Atlantic Anna Björk Bjarnadóttir, Chief Service & Operations Officer at Isavia shares insights into how the corporation is harnessing technology and innovation to enhance its operations.

3

Overseeing all airports and air navigation in Iceland, Isavia is a stateowned corporation that operates as a private entity on the market. savia also coordinates the air traffic in Greenland and takes great pride in its important role in managing the air traffic in one of the world’s largest control areas, the North Atlantic.

Anna Björk Bjarnadóttir, Chief Service & Operations Officer at Isavia tells us how the corporation has balanced protecting safety and security priorities with introducing digital technology and innovation.

In her role, Anna primarily focuses on Keflavík International Airport (KEF) and is accountable for its licence of operation. She explains how KEF is a diverse operation, so a range of responsibilities falls within her remit – from the control tower and airport security to passenger services and airfield operations.

Anna and her team are the nexus for KEF, focusing on harnessing digital technology at the airport to enhance 4

operations while also collaborating with other subsidiaries of Isavia as a corporation that are responsible for different areas of the business.

“Aviation and airport operations have always relied heavily on technology,” says Anna. “But due to the high emphasis on safety and security, it has also been quite a conservative industry in many ways. For me, coming from the telco and IT industry where I've been for the past 20 years before I came to Isavia four years ago, it fascinated me how much potential there is to utilise digital technology alongside traditional airport technology.

“Safety and security are the foundation of everything we do at our airports. With airport technology on one hand and digital innovation on the other, as in other industries, those two have to merge at some point – and to greater extents.

5

“At Isavia, we have found that we need to address technology more holistically than before. We embarked on a journey to advance our IT technology and digitalisation as a corporation to advance our operations as a whole.

“The first important step for us happened four years ago, which was to elevate the IT and digitalisation agendas by putting a CIO on the executive table. Creating the CIO role ensured that our decision-making would always include those aspects.

From there, we have been slowly involving IT and digitalisation more and more in our strategies. Today, four years later, we are in the midst of finalising our digitalisation strategy, after having finished the revamp of our entire business strategy review.”

6

Anna emphasises that digital innovation and technological transformation have been great enablers at Isavia in the past four years, in particular as catalysts for creating a seamless, collaborative working environment. Anna focuses on changes at Keflavík International Airport (KEF) to demonstrate the broader company strategy.

“Two of the main pillars in our new strategy for KEF have been included for the first time,” says Anna. “The first focuses on the airport community as a whole and the second involves smart solutions, including digitalisation.

“We had never really embraced the airport ecosystem or the

“Two of the main pillars in our new strategy for KEF have been included for the first time. The first focuses on the airport community as a whole and the second involves smart solutions, including digitalisation” Anna Björk Bjarnadóttir, Chief Service & Operations Officer at Isavia airport community as part of our strategy in the past, because Isavia only constitutes 15% of all employees at the airport. We are only a small part of all the staff running the airport. But as we redefined our business strategy, we soon realised how intrinsic we are in all the processes at KEF so it made abundant sense to embrace our role as an enabler, rather than just a landlord.

“This shift demanded a lot of change within our organisation and how we approached our complex chain of operations, but it has been worth it.

We had to change the mindset and behaviour of the company totally – top down and bottom up.

“Our first steps within the airport community pillar of our new strategy

involved changing our company culture. This might appear unrelated to the other major pillar of smart solutions, but it was the company culture shift which enabled us to embrace digitalisation and new IT technology. They are interconnected.

“We have been on a two-year journey for this cultural transformation, investing time, money and our souls into it. It has been the foundation for the radical change needed to pull the airport ecosystem together and achieve our vision for KEF. “So far we have already seen huge changes and, most promisingly and pleasantly, positive feedback from our main partners in the airport community. Enabling the entire KEF ecosystem is fertile ground for 7

further innovation, progress and achievement.

“Now we have built that airport community as the foundation (and we are still in the middle of that journey) we are turning towards and finalising our digitalisation strategy within the broader business strategy as the second new pillar.

“We are incredibly fortunate to have a lot of innovative and forwardthinking people in our team at Isavia. Together we have already implemented a lot of solutions that have moved us forward with our digitalisation and IT transformation.”

Anna highlights several digitalisation and tech projects at KEF which have revolutionised the services and operations of the airport and Isavia as a corporation.

“Veovo’s Live Passenger Forecasting is a prime example,” says Anna.

“We were the first airport to adopt this technology which enables live passenger forecasting when COVID-19 hit in 2020. Veovo’s solution prevents airport crowding and improves capacity planning – it was invaluable for us during the COVID-19 period when there were new air traffic patterns and changing passenger behaviours. We could no longer depend on plans that were based only on historical patterns. We needed more real-time 8

information to be able to change and execute capacity planning in near-real time.

“By partnering with Veovo and deploying their solution, it's helped us accelerate the return to preCOVID-19 passenger levels much faster than we anticipated.”

On the topic of COVID-19, Anna describes how Isavia spent the months of lockdowns and travel restrictions to regather, plan ahead and work on projects that would be more complex to deploy with airports operating at full capacity.

“In the years leading up to 2020, the number of passengers going through KEF grew 20% to 40% year on year,” says Anna. “By 2018 we had 10 million passengers cross our doors, which actually exceeded the capacity of the terminal.

“We were operating in what I call ‘space debt’. We had a master plan to develop and increase the capacity of the airport, but of course that halted in the first month of the COVID-19 pandemic. Fortunately, despite a massive drop in income during COVID-19, we were very fortunate to secure funding for the airport expansion project.

“After setting in motion heavy construction at the terminal on one hand, we also needed to focus our attention on being

“Veovo’s solution prevents airport crowding and improves capacity planning – it was invaluable for us during the COVID-19 period when there were new air traffic patterns and changing passenger behaviours” able to receive all these additional passengers and aircraft movements.

So closely connected to the physical infrastructure expansion at KEF was the concurrent digital development of a total airport management system.

“A total airport management concept has several components. There is the Airport Operation Control Centre (APOC), the airport operation plan,

and other dynamics including airportwide collaborative decision-making to improve the efficiency and the resilience of airport operations.

“The total airport management concept helps us optimise the use of resources and improve the predictability of air traffic and airport operations. To sculpt the new concept, the first thing we did during

Considering AI transformation?

Veovo customers are already doing it Airports are complex. It takes coordination between many parties to make sure flights and passengers depart on time. Meet Veovo’s Intelligent Airport Platform, relied on by Isavia, and 140 other airports, to join up data and decisions.

Veovo’s AI powered tech gives airports a smarter and more efficient way to manage check in, security, aircraft parking, immigration and baggage reclaim.

So passengers can go brilliantly.

Learn more

veovo.com

9

“Based on the airport intelligence we learned at Brussels Airport, they were able to assist and advise us in the analysis, planning and scoping of our APOC project with its multiple components” COVID-19 was to merge our existing control centres – one being the security control centre and the other being the terminal operation control centre.

airports that have been at the forefront in this field such as Oslo Airport, Schiphol Airport and Brussels Airport.

“Based on the operational expertise and knowledge we experienced at Brussels Airport, we got their Airport “We installed and implemented the new Airport Operation Control (APOC) Intelligence consultants to assist and advise us in the analysis, planning and centre to streamline how KEF works scoping of our project with its multiple as a whole. But before deploying the components. change, we visited a lot of European

Our goal is simple

Using the wealth of knowledge and operational excellence of Brussels Airport, we want to support our clients in achieving their full operational potential with a proven set of methodologies and solutions

What we do Offering airportrelated consultancy services

Discovering, preparing and implementing our Airport Operations Plan (AOP) software suite

Find out more at

www.airportintelligence.com 10

/airport-intelligence

“The implementation of the APOC project was the first step and the foundation in our introduction of a total airport management concept and it turned out to be more important than we could have imagined during COVID-19. With all the coordination of passenger testing and new elements that had to be added to the airport during the pandemic, but also on top of the challenges arising from Iceland’s notorious adverse weather conditions, we really relied on the APOC to help us forecast proactively and rise to challenging circumstances before us.”

Within the second pillar of transformation at Isavia to deploy

smart solutions, Anna adds that artificial intelligence has grown in importance to the company’s service and operations department.

“AI is still in its early days when it comes to general operations, but at the same time it’s- moving at supersonic speed, and good AI professionals are few and far between,” says Anna. “I came from an IT company before I joined Isavia and even there we found it hard to source the right talent. But we have started our AI journey with all the help we can get. Our partnership with Veovo implementing their intelligent Queue Balancer solution to optimise passenger flow and improve the transfer passenger experience 11

12

through border control is a prime example.

“Veovo’s software is AIdriven and highly intelligent in the way that it calculates the most suitable line for passengers based on factors such as wait times, occupancy and processing speed to maximise throughput while also prioritising the specific passenger categories if the queue time exceeds a given service level target, for example. For us, this is a solution at the forefront in AI and it's really exciting to see it improving operations, especially with everything back in motion after the COVID-19 period.”

Here Anna reiterates that much of the digital innovation and technological transformation at Isavia would not be possible without strategic partnerships and the close collaboration arising from them.

“Collaboration is the foundation of transformation, it’s been at the core of redefining our strategy in the past few years,” says Anna.

“Ultimately, we are only a small part of the whole ecosystem of Iceland’s airports and air traffic control, so partnerships are fundamental to us. This 13

“by working with partners like Frequentis, we are automating the surface movement surveillance process so we can operate much more safely and efficiently in low-visibility situations than we have done before” stretches beyond our direct strategic partners in the airport ecosystem, we need to rely on professionals from outside our network.

“As we continue our work enhancing the capacity of Keflavík International Airport, one of the biggest related projects is to upgrade our surveillance systems in conjunction with the expansion. For a large proportion of the year, we have low visibility and adverse weather conditions

at the airport, which restrict the movement of aircraft. But by working with partners like Frequentis, we are automating the surface movement surveillance process so we can operate much more safely and efficiently in low-visibility situations than we have done before.

“Frequentis already help us by integrating our space-based surveillance data sources with the ground-based infrastructure

See us at Airspace World, Geneva, 19 – 21 March

A decade of pioneering arctic air traffic solutions Frequentis is proud to have been supporting Isavia with the vast airspace over Iceland and Greenland, providing them with cutting-edge air traffic solutions for the last decade. We look forward to continuing this journey to redefine arctic airspace efficiency and safety together.

14 www. frequentis.com

15

Partnering with ISAVIA Ohf, Keflavík International Airport for more than two decades

Insero Air Traffic Solutions - designs, implements and delivers intelligent and cost-effective software solutions for airports and Air Navigation Service Providers.

Our solutions are built on more than 40 years of experience in digital transformation in air traffic management, developing innovative, sustainable and reliable software solutions.

Insero AviSky - One data platform, supporting remote tower, SWIM and smarter airport operations With a single-consolidated data view across systems, Insero AviSky enables you to unlock the business potential of your data for remote tower integration, smarter airport operations and SWIM, supporting a data-driven and fully digitised future.

Insero AviCast - The new standard in ATIS/VOLMET solutions Whether for (D-)ATIS and/or (D-)VOLMET and whether for one or multiple aerodromes, Insero AviCast is the state-of-the art solution supporting your needs into the future.

Insero SERIS - Terminal/Route Charges and Air Traffic Analysis solution Offers advanced consolidation and analysis of flight data, air traffic density, while optimising revenue streams, digitalisation of charging processes, cost recovery including interfacing the EUROCONTROL CRCO system.

Read more about these and our other solutions at www.inseroats.com.

16

“Our partners Insero specialise in air traffic solutions and have really helped us in collecting, handling, editing and presenting meteorological information at Keflavík airport” consisting of radars, ADS-B ground stations and mulitlateration, as well as providing IP-based voice communications for uninterrupted air traffic operation.

“Adjusting to adverse visibility and weather conditions is a big part of our operation and the APOC control centre helps us coordinate when they are at play. Our partners Insero specialise in air traffic solutions and

have really helped us in collecting, handling, editing and presenting meteorological information at Keflavík airport. Insero provides us with a variety of weather sensor systems that deliver incredibly reliable, real-time information, which is essential for coordinating the incoming and departing aeroplanes alongside our snow removal team.

Insero has played an instrumental role in implementing an integrated 17

tower solution for collecting and handling all the relevant weather and visibility data for us.”

Weather and visibility data are crucial for operations at Keflavík, but beyond these meteorological insights, Anna explains that real-time data distribution across all partners in the airport community is another top priority for Isavia.

“Keflavík airport is such a diverse workplace, with so many parts of the value chain having to work together,” says Anna. “We're all working with our specific data and we haven't done enough to merge those insights to date. If there are different datasets telling different stories, not only can this be complicated, but in an airport setting it can become dangerous.

“As such we have worked to adapt our central data warehouse to form the core of the airport operations, so we can expand it to be the transparent data source for the whole airport, promoting end-to-end, seamless visibility.”

To learn more about Isavia, visit isavia.is.

18

Connect with Anna

ADDED VALUE Organic career development In the early days of her career, Anna was enrolled in a fine art academy and wanted to be a painter. But she changed direction to study sports science since she had been a sports fan and competed in them for her whole life.

“I happened to find myself in business accidentally,” shares Anna. “I’ve been there for the past 30 years, and I’ve always embraced organic career progression rather than a planned approach.”

Human interaction as underlying motivation “My philosophy is based on human interaction,” says Anna. “That's why I'm so absorbed by the cultural transformation journey that we’re exploring at Isavia. I'm fascinated by exploring what makes people tick and helps them achieve their goals. And It’s the common denominator and passion which I’ve always nurtured in my career – it keeps me going. How do teams work?

Why don't they work? How do we meet obstacles along the way?

“I was a leadership and management consultant for many years, working with several different companies spanning multiple sectors and industries.

All these businesses had different problems they wanted to solve, but when I look back, the main challenge underneath them all was human interaction – whether this was related to communication, collaboration or management.

“I firmly believe that human interaction is the key to success and must be the foundation before we can begin to work on other priorities like digitalisation or innovation.”

Events Anna is thrilled to be attending the Passenger Terminal Expo 2024 in Frankfurt, Germany.

“I really look forward to meeting my colleagues in the industry at PTE 2024,” says Anna. “The aviation industry is incredibly generous with sharing experience and insights in the spirit of cooperation, and I can’t wait to attend.”

19

isavia.is

20