That’s a wrap for Passenger Terminal World 2024. While there are quite a few technology solutions in airports today, which would have been more than welcomed when we first started in the airport world nearly 25 years ago, we discovered some of the same anomalies and constraints we faced at that time. We also discovered some interesting things, gained insight, and confirmed some assumptions along the way.
Vehicular Traffic Monitoring and Control
- Security Concerns: Preventing unauthorized access to sensitive areas such as runways, taxiways, and aircraft parking ramps is critical for maintaining airport security. Controlling vehicular access and implementing robust security measures to mitigate the risk of unauthorized entry present ongoing challenges.
- Efficient Ground Handling Operations: Coordinating the movement of various ground support vehicles (e.g., baggage tugs, fuel trucks, catering vehicles) alongside passenger and commercial vehicles is essential for efficient ground handling operations. Ensuring smooth traffic flow while prioritizing safety and security is a complex task.
- Environmental Impact: Managing vehicular traffic to minimize environmental impacts, such as emissions from idling vehicles and fuel consumption, is increasingly important for airports striving to reduce their carbon footprint and comply with environmental regulations.
- Infrastructure Limitations: Many airports face infrastructure limitations, including insufficient road capacity, inadequate parking facilities, and outdated traffic management systems. Addressing these limitations and investing in infrastructure upgrades pose significant challenges for airport authorities.
- Coordination with Stakeholders: Coordinating traffic management efforts with various stakeholders, including airlines, ground handlers, transportation agencies, and local authorities can be challenging due to differing priorities, regulations, and operational requirements.
Data Consolidation and Interoperability in Airports
- Integrated Sensor Network: Establish an integrated sensor network throughout the airport premises, including surveillance cameras, thermal imaging cameras, motion sensors, RFID readers, LiDAR scanners, and other relevant sensors.
- Machine Learning and AI: Employ machine learning and artificial intelligence algorithms to analyze data patterns, detect anomalies, and predict potential security threats or operational issues. These techniques can help in identifying suspicious behaviors, predicting passenger flows, optimizing resource allocation, and enhancing overall airport efficiency.
- Scalability and Redundancy: Design the data capture and consolidation infrastructure to be scalable and redundant to handle increasing data volumes and ensure continuous operation even in case of system failures or disruptions.
What are the Challenges?
- Collaboration and Information Sharing: Facilitate collaboration and information sharing among different airport stakeholders, including security agencies, airlines, ground handlers, and law enforcement authorities. Establish protocols and platforms for sharing relevant data and intelligence to enhance security and operational coordination.
- Compliance and Privacy: Ensure compliance with relevant regulations and privacy laws governing the collection, storage, and use of data, especially concerning
Information coming into a central point, in all forms and from different sources and areas in the Airport, that can give a complete operational picture is just as elusive as ever. When talking to industry experts, users, and other 3rd parties – and others who could benefit from integrated technology solutions, it was evident that there is a market for information capture solutions that do not depend solely on one information source or capture methods, and are based more on the platform openness to take information from different sources. This is nothing new in the airport world, it was a problem before the technological advances of today and continues to be, with much better technology. We have some standards in place but that’s only part of the problem. It’s still just as much of a challenge as ever for Airport stakeholders to come together and decide how or if they will share information in a meaningful way. It’s not a technology problem.
For example, there are many closed solutions for capturing image and video information, something we started using over 20 years ago, but has grown in scope and technological innovation. What we saw is that some companies have their hardware+software solution – that only allows that combination of solutions to be used together and that the “openness” or lack of it can be a limiting factor when considering how to get a complete picture of passenger traffic throughout a terminal. Others have only software solutions and have limited means by which to capture information (only from video cameras for example). These solutions may be technologically advanced, but can they give us the complete picture? The concern is that the capture methods and scope may not ever be widely adopted simply due to the lack of coverage or limitations of a single capture method.
That said, these technology-related issues are easily solvable.
What is not easily solvable is how to cut through stakeholder resistance and the bureaucracy involved in the sharing of information airport-wide. In the case of video cameras within terminals, problems were cited such as the necessary permission from the security area for shared use or the placement of cameras and the time, bureaucracy, and installation scheduling and execution. One who designs terminals told me they wanted to take anonymized passenger movement captures from security cameras at one of the business airports in the world … and after 6 months they still did not get authorization to use those images to measure passenger flow. Security concerns and sensibilities are understood, but how can we address this issue for the benefit of better infrastructure planning and address security concerns? So the question is… can we get that information from other sources – or combine the information from other sources?
An industry expert mentioned another large airport, one of the busiest in the world, has a problem with airside vehicle traffic (congestion, routing), and to analyze the problem, they used people to count and take photos to capture evidence and examples. Here there is a case that can be easily made to use a camera and other sensing technologies together, much of which may already exist or that can be repurposed or multi-purposed, to monitor traffic to determine congestion points, entrance authorization, and traffic violations on busy tarmacs. Another solution could be to equip vehicles with sensors as part of their authorization to enter the airside traffic space…no sensor, no entry – and it provides a means of tracking and monitoring vehicle movement.
Another major problem mentioned was theft and vandalism of cars in airport parking lots, some of which are far away or out of reach of the existing controls. In this use case, different capture methods could be used to determine break-ins … video, sound, and still images.
Another person who sells people counting solutions said that one of their airport clients wants a landside control solution to understand the traffic entering the airport site to prepare resources in advance for exceptional cases such as fairs and conventions where many people will come, for example in several buses at once. This can be a combined solution that not only covers the use case mentioned but also security, traffic violations, and unauthorized vehicle entry
Another topic of great interest is luggage – from processing claims for damage and loss to replacing tags in favor of electronic ones (RFID, chip, sensor) and/or smart bags. A very complicated issue due to baggage logistics and the need for several stakeholders to come together and agree on the way forward to standardize and/or create a solution for mass adoption. There are e-baggage industry standards (and even implementation on a small scale) but there is still a long road ahead to mass adoption. There is much to be resolved in baggage processing to reach a more automated solution, from solutions such as damage claims to the control of the size of hand luggage at the boarding area. Understanding beforehand if the passenger has hand luggage that exceeds the allowed size (and type) is a much simpler use case to resolve (and being much simpler doesn’t mean it is simple). This is also related to the sustainability question, which is becoming more prevalent in airports and airlines. When can we be relieved of using paper-based bag tags and the waste and costs associated with them – part of the e-baggage solution?
These were some of the topics of discussion that took place and I thank those in the industry who took the time to express their ideas and these problems more in depth.
How Tangonet Solutions can help?
Navigating the complexities of airport operations and security is no small task. As technology advances, the integration and optimization of new solutions become crucial for enhancing operational efficiency and safety. At Tangonet Solutions, we are dedicated to developing innovative solutions that tackle these unique challenges. If you’re interested in exploring custom solutions tailored to your airport’s needs or if you have any questions about how we can assist in streamlining your operations, do not hesitate to reach out.
Schedule a call today to discuss your specific needs and discover how we can help you transform your airport operations. Our team is ready to provide you with the insights and assistance needed to implement effective and integrated technologies. Let’s work together to create a safer, more efficient airport environment.
