Airports of the Future

But it seems to be the way that technology is changing the world around us that is already changing airports, and not just in the way that people can now step inside the terminal, scan their phone at a kiosk, look into a passport check camera, and board the aeroplane.

As just one example, growth in on-demand app-based ride-hailing like Uber has already had impacts on the way airports design their forecourts, vehicle waiting areas, and transit networks. Autonomous, driver-less vehicles seem set to be the next challenge to meet, especially around passenger flows into and out of terminals.

But what will the airports of the future look like?

Airports, terminals and their precincts will be bigger, more multifaceted and more complex

The airports of the future will be larger, with more runways, and with better and more closely linked terminal facilities, remedying the legacy domestic/international split that has not provided travellers in Australia and New Zealand with optimal connections. And that future isn’t that far away: master plans across the region seek to either link together physically separate terminals or to replace them with combined facilities.

Some of this replacement comes from swing gates, where domestic and international flights can both be operated, with passengers directed to the appropriate arrivals stream when they land, and boarding passengers arrive from either a domestic or international departures zone.

Adelaide Airport has been an Australian pioneer in using swing gates, and has seen much success. The system is now being adopted by many other airports. However, says the airport’s managing director Mark Young, Adelaide will begin dedicating space in its terminal to the growing international market: “Gate 18 will become a permanent international gate and will be the focus of the improved retail and boarding facilities. Other international gates will continue to utilise Adelaide Airport’s unique swing gate system to allow both international and domestic operations.”

“International upgrades will include a second, longer baggage belt for arrivals, more space for emigration and immigration processing, expanded security screening, a larger duty-free precinct for arrivals and departures, and expanded dining and retail options,” Young says, noting that “the expansion will also see a complete refurbishment of retail areas, resulting in a more than 80 per cent increase in the overall size of the terminal’s retail and dining precinct across domestic and international areas.”

Non-aviation revenue at airports will also continue its rise in importance for those airports with substantial land banks and robust strategic plans. It’s not just about figuring out where new terminals, taxiways, aprons and runways will go: it’s about having the confidence in forward planning to enable the medium-term release of land so that developers can have the confidence their buildings will be able to fulfil their intended lifespan, beyond the relatively short-lived capital investment of big-box retail park stores, but with the airport retaining space to be able to build in the long term. One leader in the field is Brisbane Airport.

“Our current available vacant land bank is just over 500 hectares,” explains Brisbane Airport’s Floor Felten, general manager for strategic planning and development.

“This land is intended for a variety of uses including commercial, industrial, retail and associated aviation development. BAC is constantly investigating opportunities to achieve our goal of developing business hubs. The BNE Auto Mall project is an example of this key strategy.”

The Auto Mall, a project coming in just underneath a cool $90 million that will sit between the domestic and international terminals, will be “a multi‑purpose auto retailing hub that sees flagship dealerships sitting alongside exhibition and conference activities, hotels, event area, driver training schools and regional offices around a multi-purpose test track”, the airport says.

Meanwhile, at ADL, “Adelaide’s Airport Business District has significant opportunities for future development,” says Yong.

‘It’s about having the confidence in forward planning.’

“We have had some recent success with the new, state of the art pathology laboratory for Australian Clinical Laboratories under construction and a new Kennards Self Storage facility just opened. We continue to receive a high level of enquiry on other development opportunities across the Airport Business District particularly for land in Burbridge Business Park and on our planned freight and logistics hub at Airport East.”

Even before getting to the airport, the trends towards self-service and automation will only increase, with more opportunities for passengers to take care of the formalities while at home, work or en route.

Automation will revolutionise the way airports operate

Already, says Adelaide Airport’s Young, “greater use of automated and self-service technology – many people now want to book their flight, select ancillary services, check-in, book their transport or parking, buy food and retail, check flight times and boarding gates, board their flight, track their luggage and arrange their travel to their pre-booked accommodation all on their mobile device.”

“The introduction of Smart Travel – kiosk and automated bag drop – has fundamentally changed the check-in experience,” Young adds.

“In the next five years we can see this going further, with your bags being picked up from home and dropped at your destination by a logistics provider, eliminating the need to drop bags in the terminal. When coupled with mobile check-in, the check-in hall of the future may be a very different place.”

Indeed, a Japan-style luggage delivery service would be very welcome to many passengers, but the infrastructure required has meant it has so far been limited in rollout.

So far, Young explains, “the biggest impact has come from mobile devices. The sheer number of mobile devices has also changed the check-in experience, with travellers checking in and downloading their boarding passes at home, in the hotel or in the taxi or Uber on the way to the airport.”

Inside the terminal, says Brisbane Airport’s Felten, “innovation in technology and digitalisation at airports can be seen throughout the passenger journey from the ever-increasing usage of mobile app and wearable technology – with passengers who want to be able to access information relating to flight information and booking details from their own personal devices to the use of digital and interactive methods of navigating through an airport including virtual and augmented reality.”

Augmented reality wayfinding seems set to be a real winner, where passengers can use the camera on their mobile device or direction signals from their smartwatch to follow a virtual path through the airport. The possibilities for airports to better serve their passengers, including first-time visitors, customers from multiple language backgrounds, and passengers with reduced vision or mobility impairments are truly exciting.

The direct and third-party relationships between airport and passengers are evolving

Yet one of the questions that hasn’t truly been answered is how passengers can manage the proliferation of airline and airport apps in order to take advantage of new technology. Right now, a passenger needs to download separate apps for each airline and airport they use on a trip. While any sort of predictions about future technology are very much crystal ball territory, it would seem that integration with mapping apps – Google Maps, Apple Maps, Baidu Maps, Waze, or similar – and travel management apps like TripIt hold some promise.

‘Augmented reality wayfinding seems set to be a real winner.’

Brisbane leads the way in providing accessibility for passengers

As populations age and older passengers grow in mobility and desire to travel, while at the same time society and the built environment becomes more accessible for people with restricted mobility or other disabilities, airports too are changing.

Brisbane Airport general manager for strategic planning and development floor Felten explains that the airport “collaborated with the Department of Infrastructure and Regional Development and AARG to develop the ‘Accessibility Journey Planner’, ensuring passengers and visitors with assistance needs had access to a comprehensive tool that empowers them to plan their journey through the airport. Conducting regular specialised disability focused training programs for front line airline, volunteer and security staff at BNE, ensuring they have the knowledge and confidence to provide appropriate support and assistance to passengers and visitors who have a hidden disability.”

The airport also offers a ‘Changing Places’, a facility with additional bathroom amenities compared with standard disabled-access lavatories or baby-changing rooms. It includes an adult change table, hoist, and toilet fitted with movable handrails.

“The opening of ‘Changing Places’ facility at Brisbane Airport supports many thousands of people with disabilities and their families who find it otherwise difficult to travel due to a lack of access to specialised amenities,” says Felten. ‘Changing Places’ is different from standard accessible bathroom amenities, providing additional space and specialised equipment such as an adult change table, hoist and toilet fitted with movable handrails for the use of people with severe disabilities and their personal carer providers.”

“Although the ‘Changing Places’ facility is not yet a regulatory requirement, it will give Brisbane Airport a world-renowned accessible facility for those travelling with or caring for someone with a severe disability,” Felten says.

“In this respect, Brisbane Airport is leading the way in terms of not only making the airport accessible for those with higher care needs, but by doing so also opens up the City of Brisbane to individuals and families with disabilities from other states.”

Part of that work is providing facilities for assistance animals, and Brisbane has operated dedicated bathrooms for them in the domestic and international terminals since 2014.

“Building Australia’s most accessible airport is a project that aims to foster greater social inclusion, supporting thousands of individuals living with disabilities and their families who visit BNE, removing the barriers that often inhibit travel and opening up Brisbane and the world through accessible travel facilities,” Felten says.

The complexity is that the speed of change in the consumer electronics ecosystem is much faster than that in aviation. It’s still hard for passengers to ensure that they navigate themselves to the correct dropoff location for their particular rental car company at many airports, and it feels like there may well be a role for individual airports and trade associations to better understand and work more closely with the numerous international app providers.

There is a tension here between not wanting to reinvent the wheel while also ensuring enough control over the data passengers see to ensure accuracy and the delivery of the airport’s goals, many of which revolve around encouraging more retail spend.

Tension also exists between precisely whose passenger it is. “Growth and advancements in digital technology and social media use has provided a direct link between airports and passengers, when that relationship was historically owned by the airlines,” says Brisbane’s Felten.

The greatest success here has been when airports go to where passengers are rather than trying to get passengers to come to them. Sydney Airport’s automated Twitter-based arrivals and departures notification channel, on Twitter @flySYD, allows passengers to subscribe to notifications for a particular flight, enabling what is essentially a personal FIDS feed with timing, gate and boarding information delivered via an app people already know how to use and whose notifications they already allow.

‘Tension also exists between precisely whose passenger it is.’

“The world of media consumption is constantly changing,” Felten acknowledges. “In the era of big data, we don’t go online, we live online. Data gives the current and future passenger planning insight and informed decision making and therefore it is vital that a future Brisbane Airport is able to respond accordingly. Airports are uniquely placed to tackle the challenges that accompany a digital transformation and this is already evident in today’s passenger journey.”

Understanding how to use the plethora of data available already and that will continue to stream from every passenger, staff member, aircraft and ground vehicle will be crucial to the future success of airports and the ecosystem that surrounds them.

Data and digitalisation are only starting to overhaul the way airports are run

One key push recently has been to use the early benefits of the Internet of Things to make more of existing infrastructure and to guide the development of the next generation.

“With global air traffic set to double over the next two decades, airport operators, regulators and ANSPs have been exploring ways to cope with this increase in demand through the digitalisation of airports,” explains Ben Kiffs, managing director Middle East & Asia Pacific at NATS, the air navigation service provider that evolved from the UK’s National Air Traffic Services, and which is looking to expand significantly within Asia Pacific.

“One of the most exciting developments taking shape in the past few years is the design and implementation of smart digital towers,” says Kiffs.

“From London and Hungary to Australia and Singapore, trials have begun all over the world to deploy smart digital tower technologies as a smart, safe and sustainable solution for not just low traffic density airports but also those that are regularly described as having (HIRO) high-intensity runway operations to manage.”

The benefits: images and data are generated by cameras, sensors, aircraft trackers, transmitters and other sources (like taxiway closure, runway availability, and so on), then stitched together into a live 360° picture of operations – which can then be managed either on-site or, in the future, remotely.

“Such systems can track aircraft, as well as provide situational awareness for controllers and other airport stakeholders to airfield incursions and even drones,” explains Kiffs.

“Whether it is optimising air traffic management, delivering staffing deployment efficiencies, servicing remote airports with few daily movements, or as a contingency arrangement in the event of severe weather conditions like storms and hurricanes, moving away from the constraints of a physical tower is a logical next step for aviation authorities across the world which are grappling with the challenges of managing the exponential surge in air traffic.”

Smaller airports, especially those in rural and remote areas, are particularly ripe for smart digital tower innovations, with early trials of remote tower operations in northern Europe showing much promise. But even at an airport the size of Singapore Changi, NATS and partner Searidge Technologies are conducting a 22-month trial of smart digital towers.

The pace of change at future airports will only accelerate

Eleven years ago, when the first iPhone launched, few people could have perceived the way smartphones dominate our lives and our travel. The rate of new technologies and their effect on the wider world will only get faster and stronger, so as Australian Aviation finished interviewing Adelaide Airport’s Mark Young and Brisbane Airport’s Floor Felten, we asked what aspect of the airport experience they’d change if they could wave a magic wand.

Adelaide Airport’s Young would love to see “a more streamlined international experience, such as a single process for check-in, security and border control.”

Acknowledging that “this may include greater use of biometrics to track your movements through the various departures and arrivals processes including aircraft boarding,” Young says that “the overriding aim in all of these new technologies is to make the travel experience seamless and easy for all of our travellers.”

Brisbane’s Felten is also keen on adopting new technology and reducing administration, especially through facial or thumbprint recognition. She wants to “make airport processes paperless — no tickets, boarding passes or passports,” and aspires towards “walk-through security and immigration processes, with no unpacking bags, or removing shoes or belts.”

Passengers automatically guided to their gates by their personal electronic devices, given information that helps them get where they’re going, in shorter queues thanks to improvements in scanning or flow prediction technology, provided with useful and targeted advertising for a service they might find helpful, while immediately knowing how and where they can find help — this is the vision of the airport of the future. It won’t be that long until we get there.

There are infrastructure requirements, however, Kiffs notes. “NATS is also working on a remote digital air traffic control tower demonstrator that uses high-definition cameras powered by super-fast and secure fibre connections. A smart digital tower, equipped with a range of assistive functionalities and features, can actually enhance air traffic management and safety of runway and ground operations, and increase operational efficiencies at airports across the world.”

Moving biometrics beyond passport checks will go mainstream alongside consumer technology

It’s 2018, and every model of iPhone released this year uses facial recognition software for unlocking. Despite privacy, accuracy and global functionality of this kind of technology, it seems here to stay and millions of people are now using it, helping to refine facial recognition and to improve the way it works.

“This is the way the world is going,” says NATS’ Kiffs.

“More airports and airlines across the world are now using biometric applications like fingerprint and facial recognition technology to improve security and efficiency. According to SITA, 63% of airports and 43% of airlines plan to invest in biometric ID management solutions in the next three years.”

“There’s no doubt it will create a much better passenger experience, with much shorter check-in and boarding times as well as clearance at customs and immigration, as well as improving identity management which is essential for effective border security.”

Young of Adelaide Airport concurs. “Biometrics for both departure and arrival is already starting to improve the international travel experience, with quick passport processing now common for most travellers. Biometrics will soon change the domestic travel experience, from dropping your bag, to buying items to boarding your flight, just with your face or fingerprint.”

‘Sydney Airport and Qantas are already trialling ‘couchto- gate’ biometrics.’

Brisbane Airport is already in the game, says Felten. “In March 2017, BNE was the first airport in Australia to trail facial recognition technology SmartPath by SITA. A key benefit of working with SITA is its technology integrates with our existing common-use infrastructure — check-in kiosks and boarding gates — and can be used by any airline that operates on a common-use kiosk. As we progress we hope to integrate with various government systems for immigration and border checks.”

Those border checks are increasingly automated too, with Australia and New Zealand early entrants into the passport check kiosk game and still ahead of many other industrialised nations.

Brisbane Airport, says Felten, “is currently progressing a number of Australian Government security screening strategies aimed at enhancing the security screening process and customer experience. These include technology upgrades which will introduce advanced screening technology allowing passengers to leave larger items like laptops and liquid aerosols and gels (LAGs) in their carry-on bags.”

“In addition,” Felten notes, “passengers will be screened and cleared by body scanners and, providing passengers divest all items on their person, the scanning and clearance rates can be as fast as six seconds. The combination of these measures by late 2020 will ensure the use of the best available screening technology delivering faster, enhanced passenger facilitation and customer experience.”

Individualised products, services and experiences will be the hallmark of a successful airport

Within the terminal, it will be no surprise that airports want to earn more from their retail spaces. Hundreds of millions of dollars are being spent to upgrade facilities, with both unique airport offerings, luxury brands and familiar high street products all playing their role in catering to individual passengers’ desires.

“Terminal retail,” says Adelaide Airport’sYoung, “is about providing a personalised experience for our customers. We’re looking for direct engagement with our passenger. We are seeing rapid change in the international visitor demographic, with the Chinese market growing quickly. As part of our terminal expansion and other future activities, we’re providing retailers who represent emerging trends in key categories such as technology, fashion, health food options, and diverse cultural options. Duty Free stores are also evolving to become brand showroom spaces as part of the online-offline part of brands’ omnichannel strategy.”

Services, too, are growing. “Adelaide Airport is examining the use of a common-use international lounge as part of our terminal expansion. Pay-to-use lounges will be particularly useful for smaller international airports with multiple carriers, where it’s uneconomical for one airline to set up a lounge but multiple airlines can share pay-to-use facilities,” Young explains.

At Brisbane, Felten notes that “We continue to see an increased demand for lounges in various forms. Passengers are constantly seeking services to make their airport experience more enjoyable. For some passengers this may mean access to a pay per use lounge which we currently have at the BNE International Terminal.”

In addition, the muffled PA announcements will become a thing of the past, with Adelaide Airport now using automated, synthesised digital voices, says Mark Young. “The synthesised voices have been developed to be consistent and very easy for passengers to understand. They can also broadcast in multiple languages, reducing the confusion for non-English visitors.”

Adelaide is also seeing success from its volunteer ambassador programme, particularly from the Chinese-speaking volunteers who are stationed within the immigration area within arrivals to assist inbound passengers.

VIRGIN AUSTRALIA’S SAYS TECHNOLOGY EASING THE PAIN POINTS OF TRAVEL

Virgin Australia group executive for airlines Rob Sharp says technology is key to easing the trademark pain-points of the travel experience that have long been the bugbears of passengers.

Speaking to a Trans-Tasman Business Circle event in Sydney on September 27, Sharp told guests recent innovations represented just the start of what the future of travel was going to look like, namely “seamless, tailored and multi-channelled”.

“Regardless of whether you are travelling for business or for a holiday break, there is one common theme that is becoming more prevalent within the travel industry – which is for operators to identify technological solutions to the common travel frictions experienced by our guests,” Sharp said in prepared remarks.

These technological solutions, both for on-the-ground infrastructure at airports and digital infrastructure for passengers before they turn up for their flight, seek to offer more self-service options for travellers.

Virgin Australia unveiled its self-service airport concept in 2015 when the airline opened the doors to its new home at Perth Airport.

Located on the eastern side of the airfield at Terminal 1, the facility featured hybrid desks developed by technology provider SITA that can switch from a self-service bag drop setup to being a manned checkin counter within five minutes.

This would allow the airline the flexibility to cater to the demands of different customers, as well as better manage operations in peak and off-peak times of the day. There are also 28 self-service checkin kiosks for travellers to print boarding passes and baggage tags.

Virgin Australia rolled out a similar proposition for travellers at Adelaide Airport in February 2018.

Then, in August 2018, it commenced construction on a major overhaul of its facilities at Melbourne Tullamarine.

Sharp noted the results of a 2017 International Air Transport Association (IATA) survey of 10,000 passengers where 82 per cent of respondents preferred to use a digital passport on their smartphone, 64 per cent preferred to use biometrics at checkin and 72 per cent preferred self-boarding gates.

“Self-service is the way of the future as it eliminates queuing and congestion at the check-in halls and provides our guests with more flexibility,” Sharp said.

“Self-service technology also frees up our team members on the ground to be able to provide more of a concierge service to our guests, which further complements the overall travel experience.

“Our guests are becoming more tech-savvy and this has motivated airlines such as Virgin Australia to utilise technology in order to streamline the travel experience.”

Both Adelaide Airport and Melbourne Tullamarine will also include new premium passenger lounges as part of the renovations.

KNOWING ITS PASSENGERS BETTER THROUGH TECHNOLOGY

In addition to helping its passengers move through the airport more efficiently, Sharp said Virgin Australia is also leveraging the power of new technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning to gain more insights into its passengers.

One example of this was the voice-controlled Amazon Alexa, which is able to look up the status of a Virgin Australia flight and bring up a person’s frequent flyer details when prompted.

Meanwhile, Sharp said the airline is using machine learning technology to improve its apps, with the aim of making the travel experience more intuitive by presenting the “next best action for you” such as automatically opening up the boarding pass on a person’s smartphone when they are at the gate.

Virgin Australia is also working on integrating its apps with those of its partner airlines, with Sharp mentioning Delta Air Lines, Etihad Airways, Hainan Airlines and Singapore Airlines, in 2019.

“This means that when you are on a Delta Air Lines flight in America travelling to Australia, the embedded Virgin Australia App functionality will be able to open up to enable check-in and seat selection,” Sharp explained.

“Artificial intelligence allows airlines such as Virgin Australia to get to know its guests and their typical

travel behaviours, which in turn allows us to tailor your travel experiences.

“When we are talking about making travel easier, what we are really talking about is making modes of travel more intelligent. And by intelligent, I am meaning more connected, more personalised and multisensory.

“It goes without saying that the airlines who quickly adapt to the shifting dynamics of customer engagement will thrive in the modern travel market which is centred around apps, chatbots and other gadgets that further exemplify the 24/7 industry that we operate in.”

Sharp said the functionality such as three-dimensional airport maps have been added to the Virgin Australia app, while being able to share flight details with friends and family was expected to be available by October.

And looking further ahead, Sharp said there were also plans to offer new payment options and better notification alerts, as well as augmented reality wayfinding within airports such as Los Angeles.

“There is extensive investment in our app-based approach due to the fact that our guests are empowered by apps – they want direct control over their bookings and have higher expectations in terms of being notified with travel updates too,” Sharp said.

Sharp noted 16 million customers visited the Virgin Australia website via their mobile device in the 12 months to June 30 2018, which demonstrated the “reliance on this mobile technology to access information and streamline the travel process”.

“Travellers now expect to be able to use their phones as a key tool in the travel process – checking-in for flights, accessing boarding passes, as well as being alerted to travel disruptions,” Sharp said.

“Smartphone technology has seen a major shift in traveller behaviour which has acted as an impetus for airlines to up the ante on our customer engagement strategies, which is seeing flow-on benefits to the overall travel experience.”