AirMap mobile app offers automated airspace authorization
Commercial drone operators using the AirMap mobile app now have the ability to request digital airspace authorization to fly in the controlled airspace of certain cities.
Through a partnership with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), AirMap Inc. is now a UAS service supplier for the Low Altitude Authorization and Notification Capability (LAANC).
The FAA’s Part 107 regulation requires remote pilots to receive air traffic control (ATC) authorization before operating in controlled airspace. The authorization is usually administered through a waiver application process, which can take up to 90 days.
AirMap said this impedes commercial drone operations in controlled airspace. According to the company, the lack of a more flexible airspace authorization solution represents a loss to the U.S. economy of $127.3 billion in global market value in the commercial drone sector.
However, through AirMap’s partnership with the FAA, the company’s app now enables commercial drone operators to request digital airspace authorization in controlled airspace. This app also assists drone operators in planning missions, reviewing airspace advisories and receiving live traffic alerts.
Digital airspace authorization is currently available through ATC at the following LAANC prototype evaluation sites: the San Jose International Airport (SJC) in California; the Reno-Tahoe International Airport (RNO) in Nevada; the Lincoln Airport (LNK) in Nebraska; the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport (CVG); and the Minneapolis Air Route Traffic Control Center (ZMP) in Minnesota.
Drone operators can apply for two types of authorization with the AirMap mobile app. Using automated authorization, they can fly within pre-approved zones and altitudes in controlled airspace after receiving authorization from participating ATC facilities.
Manual authorization allows for flights outside of pre-approved zones and altitudes, requiring approval by ATC. Manually requesting authorization through the AirMap app will provide confirmation in 30 days or less.
Using AirMap’s mobile app for Android or iOS, commercial drone operators can request digital authorization from the FAA to fly in the controlled airspace of select cities.
PHOTO: AIRMAP INC.
PHOTO: AIRMAP INC.
source : https://tinyurl.com/yav6mocu
Can airlines and airports use ‘smart contracts’ for shared control of data?
Control of shared data is a key concern for all
The air transport industry is highly-connected and there is a need for ‘single source of truth’ for various data used by different stakeholders. Control of shared data is a key concern for all.
LONDON – SITA Lab, the research team of the air transport industry’s IT provider SITA, revealed the learnings from research it carried out with British Airways, Heathrow, Geneva Airport and Miami International Airport into ‘smart contracts’ residing on a blockchain.
Blockchain has been heralded as a transformational technology for many industries. While several use cases have been identified for the air transport industry, the opportunity of using ‘smart contracts’ for shared control of data by airlines and airports is one which promises real benefits. SITA Lab today issued FlightChain, a paper outlining the findings of its research conducted with its airline and airport partners.
The air transport industry is highly-connected and there is a need for ‘single source of truth’ for various data used by different stakeholders. Control of shared data is a key concern for all. Blockchain offers potential to share data in a controlled way. SITA recognizes, however, that there is a need for research so the industry can take the right approach, to ensure governance, standards, compliance, security and more.
This research project was initially established by SITA Lab with Heathrow Airport Holdings Limited (HAL) and International Airlines Group (IAG) with Geneva Airport and Miami International Airport participating. Called FlightChain, it was devised to investigate a single source of truth for flight data. The “flight data problem” is a well-known issue in the industry – namely, there is no single source of the truth and the data that does exist, is not easily accessed by all parties.
While there are many cases of airlines and airports collaborating to share flight data, this data still resides in separate silos. When there are flight delays, this results in differences between passenger apps, airport FIDS, airline agents. FlightChain ensures all stakeholders have the same information.
Jim Peters, CTO, SITA, said: “Our FlightChain project has demonstrated that blockchain is a viable technology to provide a single source of truth for data for airlines and airports, specifically for real-time flight information. While there are other technologies available for sharing data, the use of blockchain, and smart contracts in particular, provides ‘shared control’ and improves the trustworthiness of the data. This research with our partners shows the potential of blockchain for sharing data across the air transport industry.”
FlightChain was established as a private permissioned blockchain (implemented on both Ethereum and Hyperledger-Fabric) that stores flight information on the blockchain, using a smart contract to arbitrate potentially conflicting data. British Airways, Geneva Airport, Heathrow and Miami International Airport provide flight data that is merged and stored on the blockchain. During this project more than two million flight changes were processed by the smart contract and stored on FlightChain.
Stuart Harwood, Heathrow Automation and Innovation, HAL, said: “Heathrow’s participation in FlightChain with SITA Lab has been very valuable. We are still early in the blockchain technology cycle and more research is required but FlightChain has shown the opportunities for shared control of data with our industry partners.”
Peters, added: “In a real-world network, it will be important to manage the changes to the smart contract as it affects all participants. Industry bodies such as ACI and IATA, working with SITA as the neutral IT provider to the air transport community, could be involved in the establishment of the contract. In fact, we can imagine a future where industry standards are written directly as smart contracts instead of published as PDF documents.”
Glenn Morgan, Head of Digital Business Transformation at International Airlines Group (IAG), said: “Now we’ve proven the technology, we are really excited by the opportunities that blockchain can create in the industry. We will work with IATA and ACI to ensure the best practices are in place.”
The research paper published today details key lessons learned regarding governance, smart contracts, system security and system performance, scalability and reliability. Along with a view on the use of public versus private blockchain networks for the air transport industry.
source : https://tinyurl.com/y9wdannp
Blockchain Flight Data Experiment Results Revealed by SITA
Opportunities that blockchain can create in the industry
Image via SITA
APEX Insight: FlightChain demonstrates opportunities for shared control of flight data using one of the world’s most promising information-integrity technologies: blockchain.
SITA has unveiled the results of FlightChain, an experiment in managing flight information via blockchain technology that it conducted with British Airways (BA), Heathrow Airport (LHR), International Airlines Group (IAG), Geneva Airport (GVA) and Miami International Airport (MIA). The results were promising; and, like the technology itself, somewhat complicated.
Flight data from LHR, BA, GVA and MIA was merged into a smart contract, a software application that runs on the blockchain. The smart contract processes the information fed to it on each node of the private-permissioned blockchain. The result is undisputedly true information that can’t be altered by any one party accessing the blockchain. Flight data was specifically chosen because it’s both problematic to share across multiple networks while maintaining data integrity and it also contains no personally-identifiable or commercially-sensitive information.
“Our FlightChain project has demonstrated that blockchain is a viable technology to provide a single source of truth for data for airlines and airports, specifically for real-time flight information,” said SITA CTO Jim Peters. “While there are other technologies available for sharing data, the use of blockchain, and smart contracts in particular, provides ‘shared control’ and improves the trustworthiness of the data. This research with our partners shows the potential of blockchain for sharing data across the air transport industry.”
Key Lessons From FlightChain Experiment
- “Decentralized” does not equal “self-managed”. Operational oversight is still required to allow (and sometimes revoke) access and permissions to the blockchain network, manage software and security updates, deploy the smart contracts and so on.
- Smart contracts have no legal status. While smart contracts can lubricate some of the B2B friction, there are opportunities for industry standards to be encoded within these applications.
- It’s still early days. Blockchain is far from a mainstream concept and setup remains a complicated proposition. “We are still early in the blockchain technology cycle and more research is required but FlightChain has shown the opportunities for shared control of data with our industry partners,” said Stuart Harwood, Heathrow Automation and Innovation, Heathrow Airport Holdings Ltd.
- Blockchain is not bulletproof. An enterprise blockchain is only as strong as its weakest link, so the trustworthy output of the smart contract needs to propagate to each node in the blockchain.
“Now we’ve proven the technology, we are really excited by the opportunities that blockchain can create in the industry,” said Glenn Morgan, head of Digital Business Transformation at IAG. “We will work with IATA and ACI to ensure the best practices are in place.” The next steps, according to SITA, are to bring in more airline and airport partners so FlightChain would have a more complete dataset; add some more sophistication to the smart contract; and identify a business model for funding FlightChain’s operation.
source : https://tinyurl.com/yceuuost
Digital transformation is igniting the spark of the travel industry
Digital transformation is a huge opportunity
It is a well-worn expression that travel broadens the mind and anything that makes travel better can only be a good thing.
Digital transformation is a huge opportunity, one that scares us and excites us at the same time. We are very passionate about this topic, because if done right it will benefit everyone.
I speak on a daily basis with airlines based in Asia Pacific, Russia, Turkey and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). One collective thread is digital transformation. Airlines span from those taking the lead to those that are waiting to see what happens and many are asking us for guidance. Big data, Internet of Things, machine learning, artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and augmented reality are no longer discussed at universities alone. They are now in our daily discussions.
We believe that the industry will only flourish if we put the traveller at the centre of everything we do. Travellers have already won their place at the centre of all processes and they are more demanding than ever and this trend will only continue. Eventually all airlines will feel the heat of the changes happening at a fast pace, and they know they need to benefit from this digital revolution.
I recently had the opportunity to present our recent whitepaper Embracing airline digital transformation: a spotlight on what travellers value to a prestigious group of aviation professionals in Russia, at ‘Wings of the Future’ held in Moscow. The report finds that for airlines the value is the sweet spot where travellers feel that the balance between product, service, and convenience is achieved. Each time a customer searches for a flight, they bring their individual values to the search and technology is the strong enabler and driver. But technology alone will not transform an airline. Many airlines are seeking to review their processes and how they approach all of their operations in a non-siloed approach to benefit from the technological advancement at a larger scale.
At Amadeus, we are best positioned to support this journey with our airline customers. Together with Navitaire, we are the technology provider of more than 200 airlines carrying 1.5 billion passengers a year, and we distribute more than 400 airlines through our distribution platform globally. Technology is in our DNA and we share the same journey with any airline that wants to be in the front line of digital revolution. Join us in this transformation Journey.
source : https://tinyurl.com/y88ntpy9
Data collaboration for MRO – Why sharing is caring in aviation?
This article was written by Mark Martin, Director, Operator Edition Product Line, Aviation & Defence Business Unit, IFS.
The big data generation is upon the commercial aviation industry.
According to a 2016 Oliver Wyman MRO Survey, the global fleet of commercial aircraft could generate a massive 98 million terabytes of data per year by 2026. Between the big aviation players – the OEMs, the airlines and the maintenance, repair & overhaul (MRO) operators – there is a ton of interest not just in gathering data, but sharing it for a number of different benefits, such as predictive maintenance or health monitoring systems.
Data sharing
Some of the leading players in the industry are starting to work on their own data platforms to get in on the benefits of sharing engineering data. GE’s cloud-based Predix platform allows third party MRO operators to download predictive analytical data via the internet, store it within their own systems and share it with customers.
Airbus launched its own cloud-based data platform, Skywise, in June which collects data such as work orders, spares consumption and flight schedules from multiple sources across the industry for MRO operators to perform predictive and preventative maintenance. So far, early adopters include easyJet, Air Asia, Emirates and Delta Airlines, all of which are using the platform for predictive maintenance.
Like Airbus, many airlines and MROs will have several different customers, partners, locations and, in most cases, use different programmes for each one, which leads to data being siloed and sharing programmes being more internally focused.
Speaking at a recent MRO Europe panel, David Longridge, VP services sales for Boeing, said data collaboration between organisations is a key priority in today’s aviation landscape.
“Collaborating with data will bring more mutual benefits for airlines and MROs, but how to do this effectively between the parties is the real challenge,” said David. “No airline wants 50 different applications to look at its aircraft – ideally they’d like to use one or two.”
Collaboration at work – China Airlines
IFS customer China Airlines is one of the largest airline operators in Asia and, much like Emirates in the Middle East, provide MRO services for many of the airlines they codeshare with.
Aviation safety is a top priority for the airline and it considers the quality assurance of maintenance work as the best foundation for this. Since setting up the Engineering Maintenance Optimisation (EMO) unit in 1959, the company has become a key player in the MRO sector. Currently, China Airlines helps support over 40 domestic and international airlines with over 2,300 maintenance engineers working in five different hangars across Asia, North America and Europe.
The airline’s EMO department found its legacy IT systems were hampering its safety efforts, unable to keep up with changing maintenance and safety requirements happening in the industry.
Houng Wang, responsible for engineering activities at China Airlines, said “Our network of legacy mainframe systems often could not deliver the data insights we felt were critical if we wanted to evolve the business and introduce new efficiencies. For the most part, these systems were siloed from each other, and operated by their own set of processes for capturing and storing data. This made it very difficult to access and share timely maintenance information across the organisation.”
China Airlines chose to implement IFS Maintenix to help optimise data sharing across the airline and its subsidiaries. Real-time management of line and heavy maintenance events as well as data capture at the point of maintenance was a significant benefit to growth areas of the business – especially in expanding third-party MRO services for the airline’s customers, such as Continental Airlines, FedEx, Korean Air and Japan Airlines.
In addition to reducing operating costs by $3.5 million, IFS Maintenix helped China Airlines significantly decrease its aircraft layover due to more efficient scheduled and unscheduled line maintenance, meaning aircraft spend more time in the air and less time in the hangar.
A clearer picture
The benefits of data sharing are plain to see. Better visibility into what’s happening at both the company and industry-wide level puts organisations in full control of maintenance, giving them a clearer picture of what’s happening around them to help collaboration with other industry players and benefiting from mutual efficiencies.
The gains aren’t just for airlines but for passengers too, as better vision into data will help increase aircraft availability, increase safety and provide a chance to shift cost savings onto passengers.
source : https://tinyurl.com/y8eac4l2
Drones: the critical need to secure airports
Drones are becoming increasingly popular among the general public.
For a small cost, drones fitted with high quality photo/video sensors and impressive power reserves, coupled with constant technological advances, give their owners a wide field of action.
However, these devices represent a challenge for air traffic and airport security. The British authorities recorded a total of 3,456 collision alerts in their air space last year alone; the detected objects were frequently suspected of being drones. And the risk of collision is the not worst-case scenario. The payload of certain drones means they could be used for terrorism purposes, e.g. attacking a plane while it is being refuelled with kerosene. Being able to secure airports and their immediate arrivals against intrusions by drones is becoming critical.
Detect, analyse and neutralise: Tackling the problem with complementary systems.
A range of solutions have already been suggested (acoustic, raptors, drones equipped with anti-drone nets, etc.) and some have already been implemented. However, these measures are only partially effective. Authorities taking control of drones certainly is promising, but also becomes problematic due to cyber-attack methods.
The most effective solution that offers the best course of action is undoubtedly the combination of several cost-effective technologies with the use of deployable systems or ones integrated with airport infrastructures located on the edge of perimeters and/or on elevated positions.
Drones can be detected by radar, direction-finders and cameras. The ideal solution would be to use all relevant systems in a given area (control tower information, transponders, etc.) and merge the data to isolate the identified non-problematic drones from intruders. This duplication of methods is a necessity considering that some autonomous drones do not emit radio waves and can not be traced using direction-finding devices.
The detected drone, and its subsequent neutralisation, could be achieved using various procedures. For drones operated by radio waves, the direction-finder could be used to locate and challenge the drone’s pilot. The most effective solution remains jamming in all its forms (directional, omnidirectional, variable frequency ranges, etc.). Jamming the drone’s remote control can interrupt the flow of data between the drone and its ground station as well as the GPS-guiding system. Jamming the video stops the drone from transmitting its images, hence making the intrusion pointless. However, the law still needs to be changed in the majority of countries – as was done in France in 2016 – so that first-responders can issue a jamming notice for certain perimeters and frequency bands. In the current security situation, this would make total sense.
source : https://tinyurl.com/ya3jaga3
Wayfinding for airports of the future
Wayfinding for airports of the future –
part one
Understanding the critical role that airports will play years from now and the sociocultural and technological shifts affecting airports today, experiential graphic design firm Entro has begun exploring the potential impacts of these developments in relation to wayfinding and branded environments.
The company facilitated a series of group sessions with internal thought leaders and culled their experience working with innovative airports such as Changi Airport, Singapore; Chhatrapati Shivaji International, India; and Toronto Pearson, Calgary and Vancouver international airports in Canada.
Entro identified three main drivers of change — the shift by airports toward the greater adoption of the principles of hospitality; the continued focus on efficiency; and a new focus on personalization as part of the passenger experience.
In response to these drivers of change, Entro has proposed wayfinding design strategies around technology, the passenger journey, and airports as destinations. In this two-part series, PTW will reveal Entro’s thoughts, beginning with strategies around technology.
Technology – what design problems will need to be solved?
Modern society has witnessed how rapidly advancements in technology occur, and the universality often encoded in technological change. Remembering that there will always be individuals who opt out of technology-related services and that their wayfinding experience must also be taken into account, here are some of the technological advances that are believed to present opportunities for airports.
Entro predicts that in the future, universal airport applications will provide a common experience to users no matter where they are in the world. A good example already in existence is the Uber app, which provides users with the same experience worldwide, regardless of location. This includes upfront travel costs and ETAs, an easily accessible car menu (UberX, UberPool), and personalized choices based on habit.
Currently, geolocation services like Google Maps capture exterior spaces, however, the technology is quickly being adapted to public interiors. In an airport environment, this technology will become a universal tool that provides mobile users with contextual or directional information in a familiar format. Given this context, universality presents a challenge for airports: specifically, how can their individual character be retained?
Another anticipated change is biometric scanning. While used in a limited way today, in the future it might become commonplace for airport security. This is likely to affect the interior structure or layout of airports, the expediency of security processes, and ultimately the flow of a user’s journey.
Furthermore, there will undoubtedly be evolutions in industrial design that will have an impact on signage and display materials and technology. These advancements may encompass everything from new lighting products; alternative methods of applying graphics; refinements to base materials such as aluminum, acrylic, or stainless steel; to changes in digital technology, for example screens that are thinner, smaller and faster. Any significant change is likely to influence signage design decisions.
Though the technology may change, the fundamental principles of any signage and wayfinding program will not. For a signage program to be successful, all signs in the program need to be part of a holistic system that provides the right information at the right time.
Strategy: applications of technology for wayfinding
Entro considered several strategies to address these changes. The following are by no means exhaustive, but represent some very practical and effective approaches that can be considered in the preliminary stages of airport design. These considerations and strategies can empower a partnership between owners, architects and consultants in the planning and development of airport spaces.
Leveraging digital kiosks – Digital airport kiosks could be leveraged to do more from a wayfinding perspective. Using geolocation technology, combined with customized or personalized information, kiosks could become wayfinding elements in and of themselves. For example, kiosks could provide relevant airport directional information specific to an individual’s flight when that person checks in. As physical structures within an airport space, kiosks could also become landmarks that cause passengers to pause for a moment, by referencing local culture, or creatively supporting an airport’s brand.
Connectivity between devices – With the rise of the Internet of Things (IoT) it’s possible that this type of technology could be encoded into wayfinding signage. Whether signage components are static or digital, large or small, technology that allows devices to recognize one another could prove advantageous where it supports the program as a whole.
For example, a haptic notification – which relies on touch or vibrations — might inform a visually impaired passenger of the correct path as they pass by a directional sign with a beacon installed. Alternatively, this technology could provide customized audio to a passenger’s personal device when they reach a certain area of the airport, minimizing public messages in the terminal.
Preserving traditional wayfinding – Static signage in the airport environment will remain a key component of wayfinding. These types of signs will continue to be opportunities to highlight what makes a particular airport unique and to act as airport brand touchpoints. As physical reinforcements, they are also essential for the utility and function of the space since they apply to all types of users. When applied correctly, they can contribute to a positive user experience and brand impression.
Customizing information in real time – Utilizing technology to provide passengers with customized real-time information will contribute to a more personalized travel experience. Customization could take the form of flight tracking information, destination weather conditions, secondary language messaging based on inbound and outbound flights, or engaging content relative to a passenger’s current or intended destination — with contextual content aligned with current flight data.
Using large-scale screens for maximum visibility and placing them in appropriate, captivating locations, this customized information could offer peace of mind to passengers and reduce travel anxiety. At Gerald R Ford International Airport, Michigan, this strategy was applied to two key areas – at the primary security line and adjacent to the airport food and beverage area. In both instances, passengers are reassured of travel times and entertained by variable content.
While advances in technology will be common between airports of the future, seamless passenger journeys and enjoyable, lasting experiences will set leading airports apart.
In the second part of this two-part series, Entro will examine the changes to the sequence of events for passenger travel as part of the evolution of airports. Further to this, it will explore the shift from airports as simply departure or arrival points to true destinations and multi-modal transit hubs.
source : https://tinyurl.com/y85pdvky
Sustainable growth in the age of artificial intelligence
Allow me to posit that travel is truly one of the first non-necessary activities that we humans indulged in – after all, there was no pressing need for our ancestors to venture beyond the comforts of home and hearth and potentially embrace hardship and danger while seeking out uncharted seas and lands. As such, travel is a fundamental expression of human curiosity and as enablers of billions of journeys each year, Amadeus is uniquely positioned to shape the future of travel in many ways.
One of those ways is enabling the increasing growth in world-wide travel in a sustainable and responsible way. Lucas Bobes and I recently attended the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Sustainable Development Impact Summit in New York. The WEF engages leading political, business and civic leaders to promote private-public cooperation to look for various actionable ways to improve the state of the world. The participants leading these discussions were quite impressive, including prime ministers and presidents of countries around the world, business leaders of major global corporations, and thought leaders in civic life.
Sustainability is increasingly becoming a core objective for businesses and countries today. Former Vice President of the United States, Al Gore, and Governor Jerry Brown of California, both in their intellectually provocative styles were arguably the most articulate speakers to underscore the point that while climate change is a continuing concern, the bigger challenge now seems to have shifted (once again) to uniting the world to fight climate change. As another speaker put it, “we know how to reduce emissions, but we are simply not doing it”.
However, much of the discussion around sustainability this year was also around how technology is both going to drive sustainable development, but can also widen the arc of inequality if we are not careful. Marc Benioff, CEO of SalesForce was a vocal proponent in making sure that while the technology industry rapidly adopts Artificial Intelligence (AI), we are also simultaneously addressing issues that may arise with the concentration of power in countries that lead development of AI or the societal impacts by the potential loss of several jobs for humans. Emerging AI techniques applied to food production, healthcare or education can allow citizens to live better but can also drive a “crisis of equality” if the benefits accrue to a narrow section of society.
The emergence of Blockchain and Digital Identity were other topics discussed that are very relevant to travel. We at Amadeus are leading the adoption of several of these advances in technologies for the travel industry. Our recently launched paper discusses the application of blockchain, and we are implementing several AI methodologies across the spectrum, from developing intelligent chatbots to improving our core algorithms and running more efficient operations.
Amadeus has just celebrated its 30th birthday and sustainable development has always been a core operating philosophy through the years. We practice the basics of environmental sustainability, like continuously reducing power consumption in our offices across 190+ countries, and efficiently managing power consumption in our world-class data center infrastructures. Our technology also helps our customers to do the same – as an example, our flight management software can help airlines reduce taxi times and optimize fuel consumption needed for flight plans, thus reducing their carbon footprint.
We measure and benchmark our sustainability practices, and this year, for the sixth year in a row Amadeus has been included in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index for the World and for Europe. Sustainable development is a goal for the World Economic Forum and the United Nations, and sustainable profitable growth is also the guiding principle of how we continue to deliver value to our investors and customers.
source : https://tinyurl.com/y7m6noyk
Airport Authority Hong Kong
Airport Authority Hong Kong calls for closer collaboration as big data and biometrics projects advance.
At Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA), the Three-runway System (3RS) project is being undertaken to prepare the airport for significant growth in passenger and cargo volume. The construction started in August 2016 and it is expected to be completed by 2024. In the meantime, Airport Authority Hong Kong (AAHK) is investing in a raft of technology-centric initiatives to further enhance efficiency across the airport.
One example is the use of big data, which Andy Bien, Chief Information Officer, AAHK, explained is at the centre of a triple-pronged strategy to enhance operational efficiency, deliver retail benefits, and optimise asset management. “If you have a ‘shot-in-the-dark’ approach, it’s very difficult to get any tangible results, so we are refining our approach to big data,” Bien explained to FTE. “To ensure exploration work can yield useful results, participation of subject matter experts in the respective areas would make a big difference.”
To quote an example, the application of big data in the retail space is part of a bigger strategy to overhaul the way airport retail works at Hong Kong’s hub airport. “We are more than just being a landlord. Now we are engaging more directly with our passengers, and technologies such as big data are transforming the way we engage with them,” Bien stated.
Robots and biometrics
On robotics, Bien explained robots could have a role to play, for example in delivery work. But this is not the only area where the value of robots is being considered. “Timmy” the robot has already been trialled in a service role to assist in customer service. “In Hong Kong we have the unique problem where it’s fully employed. The use of robots is not because we want to reduce costs or staff numbers. They will be augmenting, not replacing humans,” Bien said.
Another technology that Bien and his team are paying close attention to is biometrics. “First of all, we want to trial e-gates, following the IATA seamless travel initiative,” Bien said. “We’re studying the use of the face as a token to go through the airport, as some other major airports are doing.”
The use of biometrics could allow a passenger to enrol for their biometric single token, use their face as their identifier at each touch-point (check-in, bag drop, security, immigration, boarding, etc.), and also pay for products and services using facial recognition technology. In parallel, the upgrading of the CCTV system with state-of-the-art digital technology will enable the airport to take full advantage of image processing capabilities.
Bien continued: “Both the seamless travel project and the passenger engagement initiatives on the retail side have some kind of image recognition or personal identification need. Rather than being implemented as siloed systems, each of these initiatives could be based on a single platform and work in tandem.”
‘We need horizontal solutions’
Bien said industry players have to change the way they work to provide the necessary solutions: “One of the major challenges we’ve seen in the past is that established suppliers have vertical solutions for each one of these needs. What we need now is a horizontal solution serving multiple purposes.” These systems will be gradually introduced in the next few years.
Bien also suggested that closer collaboration within the industry could be crucial to achieving this more horizontal approach to biometrics integration.
“We talk about collaboratively reinventing the airport experience or the way we manage airports, but we are not alone in having this challenge. A lot of the start-ups we work with don’t worry so much about holding on to their own IP and holding back. They focus more on using open source and open data, and this is where we really can differentiate two mindsets. One is more protective and one is more transparent. Just holding on to your own secret weapon might have worked in the past, but the future is about collaboration.”
While it remains to be seen how long it will take industry suppliers to fully embrace collaboration for the benefit of the wider industry, the transformation of Hong Kong International Airport will continue regardless. While new facilities will cater to significant passenger growth in the long term, it is technology that holds one of the keys to making the most of the existing infrastructure in the immediate future.
source ; https://tinyurl.com/yc7ly2hb