Nigeria: Improving Airport Information Technology for Travellers' Experience

AS passengers traffic continues to increase at airports across the world, there have been need to improve on the INFORMATIONtechnology such as mobile apps, social media and other intelligent services to make passenger travel experience better.

Consequently, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) has urged aviation stakeholders to develop and use INFORMATIONtechnology (IT) to drive improvements in the passenger experience.

According to IATA, two-thirds of travellers would prefer to check-in online or automatically via a text message or email from the airline, while 63 per cent would prefer a self-boarding gate to board the aircraft rather than the current procedure.

However, to address the growing gap between the rich content and additional products available on airline websites and more commoditized travel options available through travel agents, IATA is WORKING with its partners in the travel value chain on the New Distribution Capability (NDC).

NDC will update the standard for electronic COMMUNICATIONSbetween airlines and travel agents from the pre-Internet standard to XML, and ensure consumers have the ability to access and compare all of an airline's products and services wherever they shop.

Travellers have now come to expect access to the Internet at every stage of their journey, including while they are in the air, and this trend is well reflected among carriers across Asia. Japan Airlines has invested heavily in onboard Wi-Fi and through its partnership with Gogo, plans to have 77 domestic aircraft Wi-Fi enabled by 2016.

Meanwhile, airports in Nigeria are currently undergoing some remodeling, process, some have been completed, and others are still under construction. Commenting on the issue, the MANAGINGDirector of Caverton Helicopters, Captain Josiah Choms expressed his delight over the contributions of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) towards the development and remodelling of the airports across the country.

Also at the recent Abuja trade fair, visitors were also enlightened on the available investment OPPORTUNITIES at the Nigerian airports in line with Government's Policy of attracting private investments to the aviation industry, which has already yielded five new international airport terminals in Enugu, Port Harcourt, Abuja, Lagos and Kano through a memorandum of understanding between the Nigerian and Chinese Governments.

The 9th annual SITA survey, in partnership with Airports Council International (ACI) and Airline Business, REPORTED that improving the passenger experience is the number one driver of IT investment by the majority of the world's airports. An example of changes passengers will see is a rapid increase in mobile and social media apps delivering a more personalized customer experience.

Keeping passengers INFORMED about their flight status and wait times is the top reason for airports providing mobile apps, with 88 per cent planning to invest in them by the end of 2015.

During this period, 78 per cent of airports also plan to invest in social media with two thirds of these currently focused on evaluations or trials.

Therefore, as passenger numbers continue to rise at airports across the world, optimizing the use of the available real estate is a priority and passenger flow MANAGEMENT will become more and more important; half of the airports see geolocation as a top priority for reducing passenger congestion.

Within the next three years, new way-finding services are set to become commonplace on mobile devices, allowing passengers to navigate easily through the airport. Just 10 percent of airports provide them today but this is set to jump to 70 per cent by 2015.

Airports are also investing in business intelligence solutions to deliver an improved passenger experience. Some 86 per cent of airports see it as a priority for sharing INFORMATION and collaborating with partners; 83 per cent to ensure more accurate service information for passengers; and 76 percent to reduce flight delays due to ground operational issues.

"We know that our customers want to be able to do more things for themselves because they've told us so. Why not use IT to let them do it at their own pace and convenience?"

"We must always remember that we fly people and cargo, not planes. So our mindset has to be oriented to view things from the perspective of the customer in all that we do--including how we design, integrate and implement IT systems," said the Director General, IATA, Tony Tyler,

"Everything begins with the shopping experience. The most successful brands--whether they are fast food chains or FIVE STAR HOTELgroups--aim to deliver a predictable and consistently pleasant shopping experience. In the case of air travel, the simple truth is we can't always do that yet".

"It is no secret that airlines, travel agents and travellers face limitations owing to the pre-internet language standard powering most travel agent and online travel agency displays. As a result, beyond price and SCHEDULE, travel agents are not able to offer product differentiation among airlines, except on a limited and airline-specific basis", he added.

Tyler also cited two other PROGRAMS to improve the passenger experience:

Innovation in Baggage (InBag) is aimed at reducing the percentage of mishandled bags worldwide from 1 percent currently to 0.5 percent by 2020. Smart Security, which IATA is developing jointly with Airports Council International under a Memorandum of Understanding signed in 2013, will improve security by allocating resources based on risk, while enabling passengers to proceed through security checkpoints with a minimum of queuing and disrobing.

"With technology advancing rapidly, we find ever more new services we can provide to passengers, yet we cannot always implement them because regulations are not keeping pace. An example is home printed bag tags. The standards have been defined and the technology has proven itself. Now regulations have to catch up in many parts of the globe in order for large scale implementation to occur," said Tyler.

Getting to a seamless journey requires many different IT systems to be able to exchange INFORMATION. IATA's Industry Data Model will provide the technology to avoid information gaps. Structured information will be available in an electronic warehouse for all to see and use.

See more: Guardian