The Airport IT Trends Survey
2011 Executive summary
2011
A joint ACI, Airline Business and SITA survey
Foreword This year marks the eighth annual Airport IT Trends Survey, delivered in partnership by Airline Business, the Airports Council International and SITA, tracking key technology trends. The survey covers airports representing around 43% of total passenger traffic and includes more than two-thirds of the top 100 airports by revenue. The continued strong response illustrates the value of the survey’s global benchmarking to the industry. Alongside the traffic recovery seen in 2010 airports increased their IT&T spend as a percentage of overall revenues. And while the pace of the economic recovery remains uncertain, airports still expect their IT spend to increase in 2012. The survey shows top investment priorities focus around improving customer service, with passenger self service remaining a key part of airports’ investment strategy. In line with this strategy, airports continue to invest in mobile services for their passengers. Similarly, social media integration to support customer service also remains important to airports. Other priority investment areas include improving airport operational efficiencies, notably through real-time resource management and passenger flow monitoring systems. Many airports also plan to invest significantly in IT infrastructure upgrades to leverage these new technologies. This booklet provides a breakdown of some of the headline findings from this year’s survey and we would like to thank all of those airports and airport operators for taking the time to complete the survey and for your continued support of this key benchmarking survey. To purchase the full survey, go to flightglobalshop.com. You can also keep up to date with all of our IT&T industry coverage online at flightglobal.com/ITzone.
Max Kingsley-Jones Editor Airline Business 2 | The Airport IT Trends Survey | 2011
Angela Gittens Director General ACI
Francesco Violante Chief Executive Officer SITA
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Management & Strategic Issues ❯❯
81%
of airports expect the IT&T spend to increase or of stay the same in 2012
Despite sustained economical pressures, airports are taking a long-term view in terms of investments in IT and Telecom (IT&T). They are increasing their spend in readiness for future demand. The survey shows that the airport’s average full year IT&T spend in 2010 has remained buoyant at 4.4% of revenue. IT&T spend in absolute terms is expected to rise further in 2012. Reflecting a continued positive outlook for next year, 49% of survey respondents expecting their spend to increase, while 32% expect the budgets to stay the same in 2012.
Total IT&T spend as % of revenue
Outlook for 2012
6%
19%
4.4%
49%
4%
32%
2% Increase Decrease Stay the same
0%
2007
2008
2009
2010 Base: Those respondents answering - unweighted
2011 | The Airport IT Trends Survey | 3
74%
Respondents this year have ranked “improving customer service� as the No 1 driver for new technology investments. Reducing cost of business operations was ranked lower this year but remains a high priority for most airports (46%). Improving airport safety and security also remains a top investment. Airports are moving forward with investments projects, often starting with pilots or R&D programs, rather than major investments. Mobile services investments for passengers and staff continue to top the airport investment priority list. The survey also suggests that almost 6 out of 10 airports are planning major investments to upgrade their existing IT infrastructure.
of airports plan to invest in refreshing their IT infrastructure by 2014
Top IT investment drivers
Major programme
Top priority
Improving customer service
Improving airport safety and security
Reducing the cost of business operations
IT&T investment programmes in the next 3 years
63%
Providing mobile (data-capable) device based services for staff Offering mobile device based services for passengers
R&D/pilot
35%
49%
28%
Refresh of IT infrastructure (LAN, WAN, CAN)
52% 15%
59%
No plans
15% 20% 26%
53%
46%
4 | The Airport IT Trends Survey | 2011
Integrating electronic documents (e.g. boarding passes, bag tags)
23%
47%
Integration of social networking functionality for passenger service
22%
44%
IATA Passenger fast travel (end-to-end self service)
23%
41%
29% 34% 36%
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Passenger Operations â?Żâ?Ż
78%
of airports plan to increase the number of kiosks they deploy (for any usage)
Passenger self-service continues to grow and is still expanding. Adoption of check-in kiosks has already reached very high global penetration. Despite the high levels of adoption, the vast majority of airports (53%) are still planning to increase the number of check-in kiosks, while others plan to introduce more kiosks for alternative usage (25%) such as self-scanning of documents and flight transfer. Airports also plan to extend the self-service concept to other passenger touchpoints to help improve performance and speed of passenger handling throughout the airport. The adoption of e-gates is still in its infancy, with current implementation under 10%. However, airports continue to show interest in introducing e-gates by 2014 to reduce queues and speed up passenger processing, with the largest airports leading the e-gate adoption. Common bag-drop locations also beginning to feature on the airport self-service wish list. Over the next three years, 47% of airports plan to implement common bag-drop locations.
Self-service investments
Strategy for kiosks 9%
3% Already done
By 2014
No plans
13% 53% Kiosk for self-scanning of documents
26%
44%
31%
25% Kiosk for flight transfer Increase total number of common use check-in kiosks
24%
e-gates for check points 9%
28%
33%
48%
59%
Increase total number of common use kiosks for other usage (e.g. transfer, bag claim, info services, etc.) We do not have common use kiosks and do not plan to imprement common use
e-gates for self-boarding
Keep total number of common use check-in kiosks the same
common bag-drop locations
35%
47%
62%
48%
Keep total number of common use kiosks, but change their usage
2011 | The Airport IT Trends Survey | 5 Reduce the number of kiosks
1%
60% of airports want to target passengers with retail promotions
Services on mobile devices and via Social Networks are set to support the airport’s customer service vision. Airport provision of services to passengers’ mobile phones are especially focused on easing and augmenting their journey through the airport environment. Notification of flight status and delays on passenger mobile phones remains at the top of the airports mobile investments. Utilising mobile phones to direct passengers around the airport is beginning to attract airport investments with 44% of respondents planning for such services by 2014. Airports also have a strong desire to offer retail services through the passenger’s mobile phone (60% with plans by 2014). Although the provision of services to passengers via Social Networks remains experimental for many respondents, the majority of airports are open to using Social Networks to provide enhanced passenger services. Most airports expect Social Networks to make a contribution as an additional communication channel. Reason for using social networks
Investments in mobile services for passengers
Already done
Notification about flight status/delays
60%
44%
No plans
33%
48%
Target passengers with 10% retail promotions
Navigation to gates/points of interest
By 2014
18%
30%
51%
6 | The Airport IT Trends Survey | 2011
Already done
By 2014
No plans
Customer relationship handling e.g. complaints
37%
35%
28%
Flight information and operational updates
36%
37%
27%
Disruption and emergency updates
26%
40%
34%
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Airport Operations â?Żâ?Ż
76% of airports have or will have systems for better real-time resource visibility and planning by 2014
Improving airport efficiency depends on the availability and intelligent use of information to optimise processes and make timely decisions. This requires systems and stakeholders to share information in real-time. The survey shows that 28% of airports have already invested in business intelligence solutions for real-time visibility and planning of resources, while another 48% plan to invest by 2014. Real-time visibility of resources and assets at airports depends on the availability of data from across the airport. The respondents of this survey suggest that the two biggest challenges for improving business and operational intelligence is the current lack of data availability, and cite poor integration between disparate systems or the resistance of airport stakeholders to share data as the main barriers for adoption.
Investments in business intelligence systems
Challenges for the introduction of real-time resource visibility and planning Major barrier Rank 1
25%
Rank 2
28% Lack of integration amongst disparate system
36%
20% No plans By end of 2014
Lack of cooperation to share data amongst stakeholders
48%
Already done
25%
25%
Already done By 2014 No plans
Lack of automated platform and data warehouse
18%
16%
2011 | The Airport IT Trends Survey | 7
71% of airports plan to invest IT solutions to monitor passenger flow e.g. check-in wait times by 2014
Airports are beginning to utilise passenger flow monitoring technology to optimise their resource utilization, enhance planning capabilities, and ultimately improve the passenger experience. 22% of this year’s respondents currently monitor passengers’ progress across the airports, but 49% have plans to do so by the end of 2014. Reducing congestion is the primary motivation for adopting passenger flow monitoring solutions cited by 59% as the most important reason. Better resource planning through the utilisation and integration of passenger flow data is the most important reason for 43% of the respondents. Airports predominately use 2D bar-coded boarding passes to monitor the passenger flow today (69%), but various other technologies are being considered. Among the most popular technology choices are Bluetooth, Wifi or video analytics.
Reasons for implementing passenger flow monitoring
Investments in passenger flow monitoring solution
Top priority
22%
30%
Reduce congestions to improve passenger experience
No plans
59%
By end of 2014
Integrate information with other systems to improve airport staff and resource planning
49%
Already done
43%
Already done By 2014 No plans
| 2011 8 |Base: The Airport IT Trends Survey Those respondents answering - unweighted
Reduce congestion to increase non-aeronautical revenue opportunities
34%
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IT Infrastructure
91%
Investments in Virtualisation are gathering pace. The survey confirms that airports are accepting the benefits of Virtualisation & cloud computing for their organization, as 9 out of 10 airports have already implemented or are planning to implement Infrastructureas-a-Service by 2014. The focus is to introduce virtualisation technology where it can bring cost benefits, with 6 out of 10 airports suggesting cost savings as the main reason for adoption.
of airports have or plan to have infrastructure virtualisation/ services implemented by 2014
Top reasons for choosing virtualisation and cloud
Virtualisation & cloud computing strategy
Infrastructure as a service/server and storage virtualisation
Software as a service/application virtualisation
Desktop as a network service/desktop virtualisation
Under evaluation
Already done
By 2014
No plans
Generating cost savings 16%
22%
25%
57%
31%
19%
60%
18% 9%
27%
27%
21%
29%
Generating greater efficiencies/ improvements in airport business processes Increasing implementation speed of new applications
48%
44%
2011 | The Airport IT Trends Survey | 9
Verbatim Responses The statements below have been selected as they reflect issues or projects frequently mentioned by all respondents in this year’s survey. Please note that these statements are directly taken from the survey responses and reflect the opinions/wording of our respondents. Major IT successes of the last 12 months l A irport collaborative decision making; e-gates l Expansion of business intelligence offering and beginning to adopt passenger customer relationship management l Deployment of free public WiFi, WiFi at the gates, in-bound bag tag scanning l New enterprise resource planning system, disaster recovery concepts and network security Major IT challenges over the last 12 months l E nterprise resource planning implementation l Improve productivity and efficiency versus cost reduction l Migration to cloud e-mail; building support for common-use implementation; working with reduced budget l Sales transactions at kiosks and bag tag print at kiosks Future challenges in the airport IT environment l T he use of new technology such as cloud, social network and mobile service l Wireless local area network roaming and connectivity on tarmac/outdoors, working stable and with enough performance together with applications and mobile equipment l The centralised airport operational control centre implementation with collaborative decision making and business intelligence functions in co-operation with airlines and tenants l Passenger tracking, we are still looking to adopt a robust passenger tracking system within the next 12-18 months Technologies making the most impact on airport environments in the near future l P assenger self-service processing and location-based (geographic information system) enterprise information systems l Enterprise resource planning – reduces multiple databases and conflicting data; streamlines approval processes; and improves data integrity via stronger validation l Mobile devices, remote/self-service check-in l Social media and collaboration – business applications and social technologies and their intersecting. Those who do so first will gain a competitive advantage in at least the short term
10 | The Airport IT Trends Survey | 2011
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Methodology & Further Analysis The survey objectives are to monitor key IT trends within the airport industry including: l l l l
Management & Strategic Issues Passenger Operations & Processing Airport Operations & Security Successes & Challenges
The survey was first launched in 2004 and comparisons are made where appropriate with previous surveys, although the sample may vary between years. Research is focused on senior IT executives at the top 200 airport operators, with the aim of polling around a quarter of this group. A comprehensive 100+ page PDF report is available to purchase, this will include commentary & analysis covering all of the following survey questions: l l l l l l l
Priorities for investment decisions Key technology investment trends in the next 3 years Long-term strategy for implementing of virtualisation technology Evolution of self-service technology (including e-gates) Strategy for mobile-based services for passengers Plans for passenger processing Plans for 2D Barcode Boarding Passes
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2011 | The Airport IT Trends Survey | 11
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