Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport (CVG) is partnering with Veovo to expand data input at the airport.

CVG was one of the first airport operations in North America and the first airport in the United States to deploy internet of things (IoT) sensor technology in the security checkpoint to monitor and display wait times. That project and the drawn data allowed CVG and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to make data-driven decisions on staff scheduling, which improved wait times and passenger experience.

CVG is now adopting Veovo’s curb-to-flight flow management technology to better understand passenger movement beyond the security checkpoint and into other areas of the terminal and concourses. Specifically, the airport will get to see how travelers, processes, and airlines interact and interconnect.

“Providing memorable and predictable journeys, from the driveway to the runway, is a top priority for CVG, and data is the key enabler for our vision,” said Brian Cobb, Chief Innovation Officer, CVG. Innovative solutions, like those provided by Veovo, allow us to gather and analyse data in real-time and proactively put it to work. We will be able to make better plans and improve productivity, respond to customer needs faster and tap into revenue growth opportunities.”

The rollout of the technology will be done in phases throughout the year. Once complete, historical and live data will enable CVG to make daily operational decisions and long-term facility improvement plans.

For example, by understanding gate arrival patterns by flight, CVG can adjust call-to-gate times or airline gate assignments to minimize crowding. The airport can evaluate the effect disruptions have on passenger behavior and prevent issues and mitigate their impact. Dwell and flow data can also be used to drive strategic plans for layout configuration, signage, food and beverage placements and gate assignments.

As passenger traffic returns over the next several years, these insights will help the airport grow efficiently with the proper staff resourcing and concession planning to improve product offerings and placements for travelers.

Background on the tech: The Veovo platform bundles AI-powered analytics, data from movement sensors and rich visualisations to provide live and historical insights into passenger occupancy, dwell times and movement patterns by flight. This data can be viewed for specific areas, grouped areas, and eventually the entire facility, including the Terminal and both Concourses.

“CVG is one of a growing number of airports globally that have come to recognise the intrinsic value of managing and understanding passenger movements throughout their concourse,” said James Williamson, Chief Executive Officer at Veovo. “Because traveler behavior can vary, depending on volumes, time of day, travel class, destination and various other factors, this technology is invaluable in developing an even greater knowledge of the customer journey and helping to shape its future.”

CVG joins a host of other airports, including Amsterdam, Bristol, Birmingham, Billund and Keflavik, that have moved beyond single-process measurement to terminal-wide insights.

The post-pandemic world will only accelerate the focus on the passenger experience for the airport; both to attract customers who have a choice of departure/destination airports and airlines who want the routes to/from airports, which are both economic and provide the best travel experience.

source : https://veovo.com/discover/news/cvg-airport-flow-management/

Christian Bugislaus Carstens Helping airports globally to unlock capacity, maximise revenue and improve customer experience.

Five quick wins for improving airport queue, occupancy and flow efficiency

Airport queues – nobody likes them, least of all passengers who are running late. Fortunately, with regulators across the world increasingly stipulating the use of queue measurement systems to inform passengers of wait times, the guesswork and stress associated with standing-in-line are diminished. According to SITA’s 2019 IT survey, 77% of airports are now implementing, or have already rolled out, queue measurement and wait-time displays – which is good news for all of us. 

However, communicating wait times to anxious passengers is only the beginning. 3D cameras and people-counting sensors that show dots moving through a line and heat maps where crowds gather are undoubtedly visually helpful. But, it’s what you do with that data, and how you respond to it, that counts.

Scores of airports are now mining deeper insights from their queue data to improve operational planning decisions – such as where and how to deploy their staff, and dynamically increase the capacity of their check-in, security and immigration processes. 

If you already measure your processing times, here are some quick tips on how to turn your dots and data into smarter decisions that transform your passenger experience and elevate efficiency. 

#1 Learn from your best crew

Often there can be very different levels of processing efficiency across lanes. It can be challenging to tell why – it could be anything from employees’ positioning, experience or customer service style, to additional screening requirements, staff rotations, or personnel combinations – or any combination of these. 

To understand why one processing line is more efficient than another, use queue analysis together with on-site observations to independently evaluate your checkpoint performance.  Airports that have done so have typically gained a 20-30% efficiency boost by replicating good practices across each line.  

#2 Predict future bottlenecks 

While real-time data is useful, adjusting staffing when a bottleneck is actively building is already too late. Real efficiency boosts occur when airports can accurately forecast passenger arrival, dwell times and movement paths, and create robust resourcing plans around this. Because every change to an existing plan can cause a drop in performance, a good plan will minimise the number of changes required during the day, leading to better performance.

Airports like Birmingham International have found that, by forecasting arrival lead curves on a highly granular basis, they gained 10% performance improvements year on year, despite significant passenger number growth.  

#3 Automate dispatch in peak periods  

A security or immigration hall often deploys a dispatcher during peak times, directing people towards the next available line, or funnelling queues to spread the load.

Consider automating dispatch by creating rules and recommendations based on real-time analysis of queue times and movement data. You can also display directional recommendations ahead of lines, by integrating with operational flight data, to give advice (Go to lane 5, for example) in languages that are most likely to match the profiles of your arriving passengers. 

A mid-sized European airport, with two full-time dispatchers a day, can save €150,000 in the first year alone by automating this process.

#4 Allow for staff self-rostering 

By combining arrival forecasts with staff self-rostering, further efficiency gains can be obtained. This allows teams to evaluate the forecast and adjust their daily roster themselves, to cope with projected peaks. For example, they may choose to shift their break by 10 minutes or rotate at a different frequency during busy periods. 

The grey line below shows the wait time profile of a queue with no predictive recommendations or adjustments to rostering. The blue line shows the improvements experienced when the same staff adjusted their rosters to cope with daily show-up forecasts.

#5 Take a journey-centric perspective 

A common next step for those already managing queues is to consider airport-wide flow management. This is perhaps more complex than a quick win, but delivers a significant step-up in customer experience and is one of the best ways to maximise airport efficiency and revenue.

Airports are finding that, when they consider processes in isolation, diverting bottlenecks in one area can end up just shifting them further along the line. Instead, by mapping end-to-end movement, and meshing it with road-traffic, flight and concession data, airports can supercharge their insight, to discover meaningful patterns and drive optimal action. 

A European airport recently discovered a few surprises after it embarked on linking passenger flow to flight data. Besides being able to predict when and where lengthy gate dwell times were likely to occur, they identified that passengers on specific carriers typically arrived at the gate 60 minutes before boarding, spending little time in concessions. With these insights, the airport could both extend offerings and services in gate piers to match passenger behaviour, as well as adjust the call to gate times to minimise crowding.

Each bar below shows the total average time spent per area and flight. Green bars = time spent in concession areas. Red/Orange/yellow bars = time spent at the pier/gate. Blue bars = time spent in processing point.

Queue wait-time displays are only one piece of the puzzle

Communicating wait times is an excellent starting point for improved customer experience – however, they are not the end game. Flow forecasts, together with performance evaluations and automation, not only allow for optimised capacity and reduced bottlenecks at pinch points but, done well, can improve operational, financial and capacity planning decisions.

Once you know, you can act in confidence. For busy airports, that is making all the difference.

source : https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/turning-dots-data-decisions-tackle-airport-congestion-carstens/

At the Forbes Middle East event, Big Data’s Big Trends, we spoke to Cherif Morcos, VP of digital solutions at GBM. He pointed out companies’ liability towards their customer’s data privacy.

Ecosystems of data sharing are the secret to getting customer experience off the ground, writes Tibco’s Erich Gerber

Today, we are all obsessed by the customer experience and the effects that it has on businesses and other organisations. And quite rightly: The sensation you have when you interact with a brand in person or online has a direct impact on how much money and time you are willing to invest in its products and services.

It’s for this reason that Net Promoter Scores (NPS) have become such valuable currency: They provide a powerful indicator of our emotional investment and how likely we are to recommend them.

I was thinking about this recently when I was in what must be a candidate for the world’s most modern airport, Changi in Singapore.

On its website, Changi claims with good reason to be “a destination in itself” and employs the tagline “more than an airport.”

Why is it more than an airport? Well, how many airports have you visited that have a butterfly garden, spas, hotels, playgrounds, walkways in the clouds, a hedge maze, a waterfall, giant slides and superb restaurants?

Changi was built to make visiting an airport a pleasure rather than a chore, a way to bookend a stay that enhances rather than detracts from the overall travel experience. It’s far away from the stresses, plastic seats and lukewarm coffee that most airports offer.

Go the extra yard and try to reimagine an experience where the rewards are tangible and visceral.

I’m thinking about Italy and the Aeroporti di Roma where CIO Emiliano Sorrenti leads a team that analyses passenger flow, visualising the movement of people and objects through heat maps and bubble maps.

That data was used to support the building of a huge, 90,000 square-metre boarding area with a food street and shopping gallery that provide an indoors analogue to the marvellous Italian capital. It’s easy and pleasurable to move about and smart boarding gates mean travellers are not held up or frustrated.

The airport is over 100 years old but such has been the transformation to creating seamless, joined-up experiences, that airline rating company Skytrax made Rome its Most Improved Airport for 2018.

Nailing the customer experience isn’t easy. In the case of an airport experience, there are multiple groups involved, from the travel agency to the carrier and the airport operator. But partnerships can enable end-to-end experiences that feel frictionless and can delight the user.

This is the future of business and organisations: Ecosystems of partners and even rivals coming together and sharing data and systems in a responsible, secure way to provide integrated offerings.

By combining different datasets, using historic and real-time information, applying customer analytics, machine learning, sentiment analysis, clustering, affinity analysis and propensity analysis and so on, we can find opportunities to anticipate the needs of audiences, create better targeted marketing, drive customer loyalty and even have customers evangelise on our behalves.

Already, we’re seeing insurers partnering with health clubs to extend their reach and create more customer touchpoints and sources of data.

We’re also seeing mobile network operators providing bonuses for loyal customers, such as discounted concert tickets and VIP queue-jumping.

But we’re only scratching the surface of what will be possible and it’s a certainty that new and engaging business models will emerge.

How long before we see self-driving cars that are free to use so long as the sponsor can capture data from the customer? Or a streaming video company that provides sharp discounts in exchange for detailed reviews that will drive others to watch a movie?

If we are data-centric and start thinking about what would make a great customer experience, the rest will follow.

Organisations who build their business on the provision of low-cost services, will always be around. But it’s very hard to pair low margins with fun – and it is also not really innovative.

The more promising path to success is for companies to maximise cross-selling and upselling opportunities. That will involve a fostering culture of data science and thinking creatively about how to build new revenue-earning models.

It’s anything but business as usual and it will take us to places that we can’t even fully comprehend today. But, as we know, “Life is a journey, not a destination!”

source: https://techerati.com/features-hub/opinions/fun-data-and-airport-experience/

Sita will introduce a single-token biometric system for the full airport traveller journey at Kuala Lumpur International Airport in collaboration with Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB), The Edge Markets reports.

The system is part of the new Airports 4.0 initiative by MAHB, and uses facial biometrics to identify travelers at each touchpoint from booking to boarding. Luggage drop, primary and secondary security checks, immigration checks, duty free purchase, and boarding processes can all be carried out with facial recognition

“I think for the passengers, the benefit is that it will be more convenient for them and it will help speed up their journey through the airport. It is about the convenience for the passengers, above all,” says Lee Yiang Ming, senior general manager, information technology of MAHB. “If you look at some of the manual processes that we have, especially during high peak times, it takes a bit of time to clear. So, with this technology they are able to register not only in the airport but also potentially through the smartphone application that we will enhance later on.”

The technology will initially be piloted with flights on Malaysian Airlines to Tokyo Narita International Airport and Osaka Kansai International Airport. Lee hopes to launch the system to all flights at the airport if the pilot, which will last three to six months, is successful.

One of the remaining challenges to single token systems is agreeing on a way to securely share identity data, including biometrics.

Meanwhile, startup Zamna has raised $5 million in seed funding to develop its platform for sharing information between the siloes held by airlines and government agencies, TechCrunch reports.

The funding round was led by LocalGlobe and Oxford Capital, with participation from Seedcamp, the London Co-Investment Fund (LCIF), Telefonica, and angel investors.

The platform is built on algorithms that check the accuracy of biometric data and Advanced Passenger Information without sharing it, by attaching a token to attest to the previous verification of the data. The validated tokens are stored on a blockchain network shared by airlines, airports, and governments.

The reason such a data-sharing technology is beneficial, Zamna CEO and Co-founder Irra Ariella Khi tells TechCrunch, is to allow the single-token to be used by the different stakeholders that carry out checks.

“There is no easy and secure way for airlines and government agencies to share or cross-reference your data — which remains siloed (for valid data protection reasons),” she says. “They must, therefore, repeat manual one-off data checks each time you travel.”

Zamna has its first commercial client, in existing investor IAG (International Airlines Group), and the company is a strategic partner of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), according to TechCrunch, participating actively in its One ID working group.

source : https://www.biometricupdate.com/201910/sita-to-launch-single-token-biometric-system-at-malaysian-airports-as-data-sharing-startup-raises-5m

Delta now offers members of its Sky Club airport lounges to enter using fingerprints rather than a membership card or boarding pass. Other airlines use biometric data to verify travelers during the boarding process with a photo-capture. The photograph is then matched through biometric facial recognition technology to photos that were previously taken of the passengers for their passports, visas, or other government documentation.

Though the use of a fingerprint or facial scan aims to streamline and expedite the travel process and strengthen the security of air travel, it also presents heightened security risks for biometric data on a larger sale. As the use of biometric data increases, the more expansive the effects of the data breach becomes. While it’s possible to change a financial account number, a driver’s license number or even your social security number, you can’t change your fingerprint or your face, easily anyway. Furthermore, in the past, facial recognition software had not been able to accurately identify people of color, raising concerns that individuals may be racially profiled.

Yet, many argue that biometric-based technologies can be used to help solve vexing security and logistics challenges concerning travel. For example, in 2016, Congress authorized up to $1 billion collected from certain visa fees to fund implementation of biometric-based exit technology. That was followed by President Trump’s executive order signed in March 2017 directing the Department of Homeland Security to expedite implementation of biometric entry-exit tracking system for all travelers to the United States. As it stands, we are likely to see a rapid expansion of biometric technology used by airlines and other businesses in the travel industry, so prepare your picture-perfect travel face!

Notably, the use of biometric data is growing across all industries and in a variety of different applications – e.g., premises security, time management, systems access management. But, so is the number of state laws intending to protect that data. States such as Illinois, Texas, and Washington are leading the way with others sure to follow. Regulations include notice and consent requirements, mandates to safeguard biometric information, and obligations notify individuals in the event biometric information is breached. And, litigation is increasing. The Illinois Supreme Court recently handed down a significant decision, for example, concerning the ability of individuals to bring suit under the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA). In short, individuals need not allege actual injury or adverse effect, beyond a violation of his/her rights under BIPA. The decision is likely to increase the already significant number of suits, including putative class actions, filed under the BIPA.

Companies, regardless of industry, should be reevaluating their biometric use practices and taking steps to comply with a growing body of law surrounding this sensitive information. Jackson Lewis P.C. © 2019

source : https://www.natlawreview.com/article/rapid-increase-biometric-data-airports-raises-privacy-concerns

into every aspect of airport management Duration: 45 minutes

Presented by:

• Ray Cleary, BI Manager, Dublin Airport
• Mikkel Oldenburg, TARGIT Senior Sales Manager

Airports need to answer critical questions every minute of every day: How many passengers should you expect at any given moment? What’s the average wait time? How many security lanes should you open?

Of course, there’s a good place to turn for answers: your data. But how do you combine data from different systems into one streamlined plan that helps employees learn in a data-driven way?

Join Ray Cleary, as he highlights how TARGIT helped world-class Dublin Airport. You’ll get their full data story, including:

• Implementation of data & analytics process and business areas 
• Methodology and why they’re moving to an agile approach
• BI champion models which create competence centers in each business area like car parks, security and airport operations

Learn why TARGIT is tailor-made for the needs and regulations of the airport industry in this exclusive on-demand webinar.

register here : https://www.targit.com//en/offers/webinars2018/2018-03-27-webinar-dublin-airport?sc_camp=ABC34F7AD5BF4D4EBD24D3FCDF1191D1&gator_td=9miqLxOZD0UIoLOvvUb62htpgls4IIm0Esl7%2fjDNAXNJMf7zJon11hyE45JJqpSb5mUjtsJZRkebLFRmqiQXRp37R6JUr3Uphyr4asGpaP0GLIEM3ffpJL5rGfMUKYhUF6kySLim9ESoI73BeONLQCTlcNmQa3CEZ327xg7ww1S7lTRckAnD%2fBbNIbMgF87Q

KOUIK Agency (which runs airport benchmarking) has created a mobile app (IOS and Android) called Airport Advisor.

The app is available in 14 languages.

For whom : for airports owners

Why : as  said in the last press release of IAR :” Almost a fifth of people would travel further to fly from a specific airport in order to get better service…”

How do we bring an answer to this?

With our mobile app Airport Advisor :
Passengers have the opportunity to mark, quote and discuss about 17 airports’ services in our app. They can post pictures, discuss in through the forum.

This create a valuable and specific Big Data for airports.

No need to be anymore on many social medias to find out about airport’s E-reputation.

The app works as a funnel.

To get these feedbacks, airports have to become member of our programm. We give a first pack of three services of their choice, on the 17 available. And each additive service is in supplement.
We deliver you CSV exports sorted by services (weekly, monthly…) as you wish.

By analysing these feedbacks airports will learn from their customers what they do like or want to see improved and even will ask for new services.

contact us at : contact@kouikagency.com  for more details

Our teaser 1/5 here :

visit the store IOS and Android and download the app to find out more about it.