Malaysia airports to offer Alipay service for Chinese tourists
Through the Alipay in-store payment platform,
customers can pay for their transactions in the Chinese yuan without having concerns on the exchange rate, and with all transactions performed in a highly secure manner. — Picture by Choo Choy MayKUALA LUMPUR, Sept 28 — Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) has partnered China’s Ant Financial Services Group to offer the Alipay service for Chinese tourists travelling in the country.
Managing Director, Datuk Badlisham Ghazali, said Malaysia airports hoped to created awareness, boost interest and also strengthen its brand positioning among Chinese travellers through the partnership.
“We are continuously looking to enhance the airport experience for all our customers. Thus, to embark on the Alipay cashless payment platform is a major step taken by Malaysia Airports to embrace the future of retail and food and beverages transactions at the airports,” he said in a statement today.
To date, 55.8 per cent and 56.7 per cent of outlets at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) and Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2 (KLIA2) terminals respectively, are transacting via Alipay.
“So far, we have seen a 25 per cent increase in sales from overall Alipay transactions at both terminals and during shopping campaign periods, sales can increase further by 35 per cent to 40 per cent,” Badlisham said.
He said, through the Alipay in-store payment platform, customers can pay for their transactions in the Chinese yuan without having concerns on the exchange rate, and with all transactions performed in a highly secure manner.
MAHB is introducing the Chinese Traveller Welcome Pack as part of its Total Airport Experience initiatives, included information about special promotions, transit and baggage facilities, local city tours and fast track KUL VIP Access.
Chinese tourists need to present their passports to redeem the pack at the Chinese Helpdesk and Customer Experience counters at the KLIA and KLIA2 terminal, from mid-Oct 2017 till March 2018.
Meanwhile, Malaysia Airports recorded 4.9 million passenger traffic movement from China last year.
From January to July 2017, the numbers increased further by 22 per cent to 3.3 million compared to the same period of the previous year.
Currently, 470 flights per week connect Malaysia and China. — Bernama
source: https://tinyurl.com/y8ataflz
NEW TWITTER FLIGHT INFORMATION SERVICE LANDS AT BIRMINGHAM AIRPORT
Keen Twitter users travelling to and from Birmingham Airport can now receive real time flight updates
to their account thanks to a new service called ‘FlightSmart’, launched today (Tuesday 26th) .
Using the @FlyBHX handle, the new free service allows Tweeters to sign up to receive regular updates on their flight – from when the check-in opens to flight departure, plus immediate notifications of any cancellations or delays.
Speaking at the World Routes conference in Barcelona, David Winstanley, the Airport’s Chief Operating Officer, said: “Customer Service is at the heart of everything we do, alongside safety and security, so we’re proud to be able to offer our customers this new innovative service that gives them the information they want in the way they want to receive it.
“FlightSmart allows passengers to enjoy their time at the airport, making the most of the facilities, rather than constantly looking at the flight screens. It will also allow friends and loved ones to track flight statuses and we hope to be able to roll the service out through other social media channels in the very near future.”
Travellers will be able to sign up via the airport’s website or personal Twitter account. In addition to receiving flight information, other messages will be issued by the airport highlighting important information and commercial offers.
The service is offered by award winning Cork based technology company, TIC, and is only currently available in two other smaller UK airports as well as airports in the USA, Australia and the Middle East.
Founder and CEO, Paul Brugger, said, “Birmingham Airport is very special to me as it was my local airport prior to moving to Cork. It’s an airport I’ve used numerous times and one I know well as a passenger. I’m delighted Birmingham, our 3rd and largest UK airport customer, has chosen BizTweet to provide passengers with real time personalised information direct to their mobile devices by social media”.
For more information on the FlightSmart service, visit www.birminghamairport.co.uk/important-information.
The world’s most internationally connected airports ranked in new study
INTERNATIONAL. London Heathrow has been named as the world’s most internationally connected airport in a new report from analyst OAG.
The company ranked the top 50 ‘megahubs’ in the world by calculating the highest ratio of possible scheduled international connections to the number of destinations served by each airport.
The Top 50 megahubs globally
Source (all charts): OAG
Heathrow topped the rankings in the ‘OAG Megahubs International Index 2017’ by a clear margin. On a single day in July, there were over 72,000 possible international connections between flights arriving at the airport and flights departing within a six-hour window.
Frankfurt and Amsterdam Schiphol were ranked second and third respectively, ensuring that the top three places are all leading European hub airports.
Chicago O’Hare and Toronto Pearson rounded out the top five. Twelve of the airports in the Top 50 are in the USA, with seven of these making it into the Top 25.
Istanbul Atatürk, ranked 15th, is second only to Frankfurt in the number of destinations served, with routes to 270 places worldwide.
Singapore Changi is Asia Pacific’s highest ranked International megahub with over 35,000 possible international connections on a single day in July, closely followed by Indonesia’s Soekarno–Hatta International. 16 airports in Asia Pacific appear in the Top 50, including China’s three biggest airports: Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.
Dubai Airport is the highest ranked airport from Africa and the Middle East, at 20. Although it serves more destinations than Heathrow, the number of international connections was 39,700, slightly over half the number at the London hub.
In Latin America, Mexico City Airport ranked highest for international connectivity, in 21st place. For the first time an airport in the Caribbean – Puerto Rico – made it into the index, at number 46.
Kuala Lumpur Airport, home of AirAsia, came top of the rankings in a separate index of international low-cost connections (see chart below). The next three ranked airports are Soekarno–Hatta, Singapore Changi and Delhi. All are located in South Asia and Southeast Asia, “demonstrating the success of low-cost carriers in meeting international travel needs in the region”, OAG said.
by Jason Hollandjason@moodiedavittreport.com Source: ©The Moodie Davitt Report
source: https://tinyurl.com/y94umbt6
This security robot can detect weapons
A new wave of Knightscope crime-fighting robots is rolling out to patrol malls and airports alongside human security guards.
Read the CNET article here – http://cnet.co/2ysQfRr
Top 5 Technologies that Could Revolutionize the Aviation Industry in the Next Decade
The new technologies that Could Revolutionize the Aviation and Airport Industry
1. Fostering Ultra-Efficient Low-Emitting Aviation Power
2. Compact Additively Manufactured Electric Motors
3. LION: Lithium Oxygen Batteries for NASA Electric Aircraft
4. Spanwise Adaptive Wings 5. Lightweight Conformal Antennas for Beyond Line of Sight Communications
Robotes, chatbots, augmented reality for airports
Airport technology keeps getting increasingly advanced to make things more personalised, more automated, and hopefully more of a breeze. Here’s what’s in store.
Perhaps you’ve bumped into Mildred, Carla or Oscar on your recent travels. They’re not real people but avatars of chatbots – concocted by Lufthansa, Avianca and Air New Zealand respectively – or artificial intelligence (AI) powered computer programs accessed on your smartphone that enable you to have a simulated conversation of sorts. Now airports are getting in on the act, and it’s all part of a paradigm shift towards self-service and interactions with technologies that offer “personal” information to help us on our way through the terminal.
It’s a shift confirmed in the findings of the Passenger IT Trends Survey released by Sita, the provider of much of the digital infrastructure that underpins airport and airline communications and operations worldwide. The survey found that face-to-face check-in is now down to 46 per cent of passengers, and since last year’s survey, self-service bag-tagging has risen from 31 per cent to 47 per cent. Almost a fifth of passengers now use self-service bag drop, and when it comes to ID control, 57 per cent of passengers would definitely use biometrics instead of a passport or boarding pass across the journey. Biometrics is just one of a handful of newish technologies that have matured to the point that they’re ripe for deployment, signifying a new era in airport experience.
AI, chatbots and messenger bots
With 98 per cent of passengers now flying with digital mobile devices, there’s never been a better time for airports to “get personal”. The uptake of Messenger, Facebook’s instant messaging app, has been so dramatic – Facebook announced in April that it has 1.2 billion users – that airlines and now airports want to reach their customers using this platform. Athens International Airport claimed, last September, to be the first airport in the world to implement a bot app through Facebook Messenger.
“The ATH Messenger is an application that reflects the zeitgeist seeking convenience, interaction and direct information,” said George Demetriades, the airport’s director of information systems and telecommunications business unit. “Passengers can easily chat with the bot program, receiving updates around the clock regarding the flight of their interest, special retail offers, timetables and airport parking services.”
Augmented reality has been in airports since 2011 (Getty/iStockphoto)
At Frankfurt Airport, you can converse with FRAnky, also a Messenger-based chatbot, which the airport describes as “artificial intelligence with charm”. FRAnky can search for flights, send flight status updates and, if requested, give information about restaurants, shops and service facilities. It will even explain how passengers can use the airport’s free wifi.
Augmented Reality
AR – the technology where you look at the real world through your smartphone or special glasses, and data, such as wayfinding information, is superimposed onto what you can see – has been around in the airport space since 2011. Copenhagen Airport launched the first airport app to use AR to enable passengers to find their way around the terminal and obtain information on restaurants and other facilities. But perhaps in 2011 walking around with a phone at the end of your outstretched arm wasn’t the norm and few other airports followed suit. A lack of consistent GSM or wifi signals might also explain why AR has been slow to catch on. But no such barriers seem to exist today: Gatwick Airport has installed 2,000 battery-powered beacons across the airport’s two terminals enabling AI-powered indoor navigation, integrated with Gatwick’s smartphone apps.
“We’re opening the door for a wide range of tech savvy airport providers, including our airlines and retailers, to launch new real-time services that can help passengers find their way around the airport, avoid missing flights or receive timely offers that might save them money,” said Abhi Chacko, Gatwick Airport’s head of IT, commercial and innovation.
The robots are coming
Conversing with robots, as we’ll increasingly do with airport chatbots, is not the only interaction we’ll see at terminals; robots of the more physical variety have been undergoing early stage trials in this space too. Meet Kate (yes, another personable avatar). The invention of Sita Labs, Kate is an intelligent check-in robotic kiosk that autonomously moves to busy or congested areas of the terminal as needed. It uses data related to passenger flow at the airport to reposition itself, thereby reducing passenger wait times.
Robots are already being used at some airports for queue management (Getty/iStockphoto)
If you’ve been to Geneva Airport recently, you might have bumped into Leo outside the terminal. Leo is a bag-drop robot that hangs around at the drop-off point as you step out of your taxi. You can place your suitcase onto Leo’s belt and scan your boarding pass with a handheld scanner – Leo prints a bag tag that you attach to the suitcase handle, a door closes with your suitcase secured inside, then the robot prints you a baggage receipt. Hey presto, Leo has removed the hassle of trekking your luggage through the terminal.
source : https://tinyurl.com/ya9on5v9
Airport and airline technology chiefs look to AI to enhance customer service
SITA’s 2017 Air Transport IT Trends Insights Report
shows that airlines and airports are increasingly embracing artificial intelligence (AI) technology to support their customer service platforms, especially to address high volumes during times of disruption.
The SITA study shows a continued growth trend in IT spending by airlines, projected as $24.3 billion for 2017 compared to $21.9bn in 2016.
Airport IT spending is projected to significantly increase, after a slight dip last year, and is projected to reach $8.43bn in 2017.
The top IT spending priority for both airlines and airports is cybersecurity with 95% of airlines planning major cyber security programs or Research and Development over the next three years. SITA reports that 96% of airports surveyed plan to invest cybersecurity initiatives over the next three years.
During the same period, 52% of airlines plan to research and develop or deploy major AI projects and 45% of airports will research and develop AI projects over the next five years.
Artificial Intelligence is expected to prove particularly useful in addressing common questions during times of disruption. Of those surveyed, 80% plan to invest in major R&D or projects for prediction and warning systems, which rely heavily on AI.
SITA also finds that 14% of airlines and 9% of airports are using chatbots today, while projecting that 68% of airlines and 42% of airports will adopt AI-driven chat bot services by 2020.
Airports primarily aim to use for chatbots for notifications and airport guides. They will use beacons and sensors to support context and location-aware services.
SITA’s research shows that 40% of airports consider chatbots a ‘high priority’ for app development, and a further 43% consider it a ‘priority’.
Despite a move towards diverse social media platforms and messaging channels for customer communication, SITA’s report shows that mobile app development is still a top priority among airlines and airports.
SITA finds that 92% of airlines plan to invest in initiatives for passenger services on social media over the next three years, but 94% of airlines and 82% of airports also plan to deploy or research and develop major proprietary mobile services programs.
The primary focus of proprietary mobile services programs for airlines is commercial, aiming to boost direct bookings and ancillary sales.
“Airlines expect sales via their mobile apps to double by 2020 and reach 17% of their total sales. Streamlining services into one single app to deliver a seamless experience is a priority for almost every airline (94%) and a high priority for more than half (58%).”
Speaking at the Future Travel Experience conference in Las Vegas, Jim Peters, chief technology officer, SITA, says:
“We know that passengers prefer to use technology and when it is well designed it can really improve the passenger experience. Airlines and airports are investing in AI and mobile programs to make services even better for the passenger, supporting sales and providing customer support, particularly during times of disruption.
“The industry is using a healthy mix of in-house and outsourced development which will combine expert and industry-specific knowledge with emerging approaches to tech offerings.”
SITA reports that almost three quarters of airlines will use in-house developers for their passenger apps, while 42% will also use bespoke developers to support their projects, or large tech companies.
The SITA report shows that 46% of airports will develop their passenger apps in-house and roughly the same percentage will use external developers.
Related reading:
Aviation heavyweights join forces on cybersecurity
Cybersecurity moves up airline agenda as threats loom
source : https://tinyurl.com/y9ean6vz