More than 19 billion passengers will use the world’s airfields each year in 2040, according to forecasts by the Airports Council International (ACI). It is the equivalent of managing the traffic of 2.5 times the world’s population. Only in Spain have the 2019 records been broken this summer (1.2% more flights) and they will be broken again this winter (12.8% more), according to the Association of Airlines. Spanish Airports and Air Navigation (AENA) expects to reach 280 million travelers this year. This enormous migration is subjected to a tedious process of urban transportation, waiting, registration, internal displacement and controls that are repeated over and over again until the experience becomes an infernal ritual. “Technology is the only key to improvement,” says Ricardo Fernández, general director of the digital travel company Destinia. A report by the international consulting firm Oliver Wyman in collaboration with ACI shows how biometrics, artificial intelligence and automation will shape air transport. This is what flying will be like:
Billing from home. Rana Nawas, an Oxford-trained engineer specializing in transportation services and co-author of Oliver Wyman’s latest report, strongly argues that “just because something hasn’t been done yet, doesn’t mean it can’t be done.” In her vision of the airports of the future she does not hear the incessant rattling of suitcase wheels through the city to the airport connection. “Definitely, the trend is that luggage will be picked up at home or left in storage,” she says. “The barrier to overcome is really safety,” she admits. Ricardo Fernández sees them the same: “In the short term it is a bit complicated because, within billing, weight or size have important implications on the volumes that can be allowed in the hold of aircraft. But, really, this will not take long to arrive like the digital ticket or other technologies have arrived.”
Connection of the city with the airport. “We see a decrease in the number of people traveling by car and taxi, so it is a dimension that airports must think about,” warns Nawas. Geneva Airport decided in 2022 not to further expand parking spaces, promote the use of public transport and use the space occupied by cars for other services. More than half of travelers now do without their own vehicles and taxis to get there.
Paul Griffiths, CEO of Dubai Airport goes further: “Imagine a train with carriages programmed to uncouple and stay at a specific terminal. That car will take you to where your flight awaits. Instead of having a road and rail system that drops passengers off at the main terminal, you could get directly to the boarding gates.” Griffiths believes the design of the future airport “needs to be completely reconsidered.”
Access control. “It’s going to be much more pleasant, fluid and efficient. And it’s not just an illusion. It already exists,” says Nawas. “What is going to happen,” he explains, “is that you are going to get your boarding pass on your phone and it will share the information with the airport systems, which will tell you the gate and how to get there. It will be a walk along a path in which you will not stop [concepto definido como On the move]. You will walk and the phone and the airport will share your data, read your biometric parameters and know exactly who you are and the immigration status.”
Ricardo Fernández agrees. “Facial recognition technology is very popular. We already see it in many European and international airports (Aena uses it). The advantages are obvious: it makes the work of security agents easier and the comfort of travelers. But as long as this information is not used for commercial purposes.”
Control of personal belongings and hand luggage. It is one of the most exasperating stages as it forces you to wait in long lines, unpack your suitcase, take off your shoes, belts and metal objects, empty your pockets and separate your devices. In Spain, Aena is going to implement 3D scanners widely in the coming years. This system takes measurements from different angles to create a final three-dimensional image with great detail. “It will be mandatory in Europe very soon and it will be a great step for tourism,” says the director of Destinia.
The last Gitex Dubai technology fair presented the Gscan, a model capable of identifying the shape and composition of any content through the movement of subatomic particles, which provide a precise image and information of the interior of any environment. It is designed to analyze everything from large structures to port goods and also smaller objects.
A US laboratory and the Science and Technology Directorate of the US Department of Homeland Security have developed a high-definition scanner that can identify tiny threats and reduce false positives, as well as a device to check footwear in two seconds without the need for take it off. “These elements could speed up the review process by between 15% and 20%, as well as optimize security processes, while still detecting threats,” says Bill Frain, director of the company that develops them.
Jesús Hernández, lawyer, adds an element to consider: respect for privacy. “Implementing this type of technology requires guaranteeing that there is no interference with people’s privacy by having access to the details of their belongings and even the shapes of their body. It is not an absolute right, so it may be limited for the sake of security. But you have to find the middle ground,” he says.
Waiting for boarding. “The airport will not only allow shopping, but also entertainment. Passengers are becoming much more sophisticated and demanding. The key to success will be allowing the customer to personalize their experience. A business passenger who wants to go fast is not the same as a family passenger,” says the transportation services expert. Nawas sees a commercial offer more linked to screens through which the customer can purchase anything and receive it at their gate or reserve a table at restaurants. And the huge space now occupied by shops could be replaced by other services, such as swimming pools, gyms, massage rooms or cinemas.
“Time is more important than ever. If I want to spend it at airports, it should be my choice, not because of the lines and checkpoints. We have to use biometrics and we have to use artificial intelligence to predict the time we spend in the terminals,” says Diego Arrosa, director of Uruguay Airports, in Oliver Wyman’s report.
The flight. Here technology has not yet found answers. The limited space available faces several conditions, in addition to the pressure of low-price offers: the increase in demand, which requires maximizing the number of passengers per flight; the increase in costs, which leads airlines to offer smaller and more efficient aircraft to save on fuel and operating expenses; and the technical safety requirements, which require having the necessary free spaces in case of emergency. “We don’t have a vision of how this is going, how we can scale it up, how we can make it commercially viable,” Nawas admits.
One of the keys will be the provision of cheaper sustainable aviation fuels (SAF), which are also essential to meet pollution reduction requirements. “We still don’t have the technology to get there, but there are many intelligent people and many billions of euros are being invested to answer this question,” admits the engineer. According to Oliver Wyman’s calculations, up to 20.5 billion liters of SAF will be available by 2030, but the airline sector will need three times as much not to reach zero emissions, but to maintain them at 2019 levels.
Connections and arrival. In the opinion of Ricardo Fernández, these circumstances are also a battle to win. “Aspects such as connectivity on the flight, baggage collection or security control at the destination can be improved.” “Technology is the only key to do it,” he concludes.
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