Passenger Terminal EXPO 2018, the world’s leading international airport conference and exhibition, was the biggest and best event yet with a record number of visitors, delegates and exhibitors.
Taking place from March 20-22 in Stockholm, Sweden, the three-day event attracted more than 7,300 visitors, with key decision makers and innovators including CEOs, managing directors, architects, engineers, airline executives, and various suppliers from across the world. It provided an ideal platform for the industry to come together and share its thoughts on the latest developments and trends affecting the industry.
“It’s a fantastic year for the show,” said Tony Robinson, CEO of UKi Media & Events, organizers of the event, “Every record has been broken; 1402 delegates is a new delegate record and we have 385 speakers, more than in any other year. We have 300 exhibitors, another record, and more exhibit space than ever before. We’ve also set a new record for the total number of visitors. To say the place was ‘heaving’ within two hours of the show opening is really no exaggeration and it’s gratifying to hear so many people saying that it really has become the #1 global (premier) airport design and operations event. I’m happy with that! It’s great!”
In the main hall, visitors were treated to the most diverse range of products and services yet, with breakthrough technologies in the world of biometric security, baggage handling, self-driving vehicles, AI robotics, and much more.
“The event is excellent, as it is every year,” said Florian Raff, head of planning and development, Zurich Airport. “It’s a great place to meet new people and get together with colleagues and friends, as well as see new technologies. It’s a combination of learning from peers and learning about new technologies, and also spending time with your vendors and existing suppliers.
“One of the great benefits of the event is having the CONFERENCE and EXPO together – it provides great synergies and with limited free time in the agenda there are only so many conferences you can go to in the year and this is certainly the one that I come to every year.”
Rockwell Collins, for example, launched a revised version of its self-service biometric bag-drop solution, the ARINC SelfDrop F series, which leverages the latest facial scanning technologies to complete the self-service bag-drop process in under 60 seconds. Read more here.
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Elsewhere, first-time exhibitor Photo-Me presented its 3D camera technology and boarding gate solution, which captures a detailed 3D image of the passenger’s face to use as a biometric token when passing through security. Travelers simply pass through the automated security gate at walking pace without needing to slow down or look directly at a camera. Read more here.
In a perfect example of the EXPO’s capacity for developing new business, material handling specialist Vanderlande signed a landmark agreement with Rotterdam The Hague Airport (RTHA) for the first live deployment of its new automated baggage logistics solution, FLEET. Expected to go live in September 2018, FLEET leverages independent autonomous vehicles that sort individual luggage items and take them directly to their relevant flight.
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Speaking at the signing ceremony, Koen Evers (above left), general manager – FLEET, Vanderlande, said, “The great thing about FLEET is its versatility and scalability. The project at Rotterdam will act as a testbed for future developments and will be watched closely by Royal Schiphol Group. Hopefully it can then be deployed on a greater scale at Schiphol and other large international airports.”
More information on all the latest product launches from the show can be found at PassengerTerminalToday.com.
Passenger Terminal CONFERENCE
The conference, which was held alongside the exhibition at the three-day event, hosted more than 1,400 delegates and 385 international speakers.
With nine different streams each day, conference sessions covered everything from airport cities, design and development, security, retail and concessions to passenger experience, sustainability and digital transformations.
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In the ‘Technology: Passenger Journey’ stream on Day 1, Chua Ching Hock, senior manager of development operations, Terminal 4, at the Changi Airport Group, told delegates how in 2012 the airport embarked on a five-year program to design and implement FAST initiatives across all four of its terminals, using the new T4 to test new ideas and development. As part of FAST, T4 offers an end-to-end self-service process using biometric facial recognition.
During his presentation, Chua Ching Hock said, “During the development of T4 we reimagined the passenger experience. FAST was a journey, not a destination. We are still learning about the future and how we can improve further.”
In the Customer Service and Passenger Experience session on Day 2, Jan Richards, head of insights and planning at Dublin Airport, spoke about understanding the 2020 passenger. The presentation, which attracted a huge crowd, looked at how global trends, such as population growth and changing demographics, are shaping the future of the airport. Read more here.
In the same conference session, Dr Bjoern Becker, senior director of product management at Lufthansa Group, spoke about how the airline has leveraged digitization to improve hospitality services. One example presented illustrated how it has automated check-in for certain passengers, meaning the traveler no longer has to check-in themselves. The airline performs the task automatically and sends the boarding pass directly to the passenger. Read more here.
Skytrax Awards
On Day 2, Passenger Terminal EXPO 2018 hosted the Skytrax World Airport Awards, recognizing the best airports in the industry. Singapore Changi Airport was triumphant yet again, claiming top spot as the Best Airport for the sixth consecutive year. The airport beat a number of other world leading airports in the race to the title including Incheon International (South Korea), Tokyo Haneda International (Japan), Hong Kong International (China) and Hamad International (Doha).
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Lee Seow Hiang (far right), CEO of Changi Airport Group, said, “It is a significant achievement for Changi Airport and spurs us to continue to deliver the best passenger experience for all who travel through Changi Airport. We are most grateful to the 50,000-strong airport community for their steadfast support through the years.
“As we anticipate the opening of Jewel Changi Airport next year, we will continue to work closely with our partners to deliver the best of experiences to our passengers.”
Other winners at the awards included Kansai International for Best Baggage Delivery, London Heathrow for Best Airport Shopping and Hong Kong International for Best Airport Dining. London Heathrow Terminal 2 also picked up the world’s Best Airport Terminal accolade and Tokyo Haneda was again voted the world’s Cleanest Airport.
A full list of all the winners can be found here.
Passenger Terminal EXPO and CONFERENCE 2019 will be held in London, UK, on March 26-28.
More feedback from the show floor…
“It is a very useful event – it is good to freshen up my knowledge and get new inspiration, and hear what other airports and parties are doing and what developments are going on. For me, the CONFERENCE is the most useful part of the event, but it’s nice to see the gadgets and technology on display at the expo.”
Marianne van Scherpenzeel, senior manager, strategic development consumer, Amsterdam Airport Schiphol
“The conference has been amazing. This is my third event and it has been growing bigger and bigger. The CONFERENCE is really good for meeting different people from across the industry. We’re seeing more and more innovation which is great. India is moving toward a younger demographic and our new terminal at Mumbai International will be aimed at millennials, so hearing about the innovations for that demographic is really interesting. We are gaining an understanding of who we’re building for and what we need to build. This expo really helps us to understand all the aspects of future development needs.”
Divya Prabha Sirangala Nagaraju, senior manager, airport planning and design, Mumbai International Airport
“This is my first time at the expo and my first time as a conference speaker too, and I’ve found it all very interesting. I come from Marseille and we have a very big investment – €250m (US$308m) to build new terminals – and here we can find all the people that can answer our questions and all the companies that can meet our needs for these big projects.”
Remi Lasserre, technical director, Marseille Provence Airport
Exhibitors
“This is an excellent event to attend. We have had a lot of people visit our stand throughout the day. There is also a lot of new technology on show, which is great for learning about the industry. We like to come to this expo every year so we can gain feedback from the right people in our sector about our current products and our plans for the future.”
Dr Wang Weidong, vice president of Nuctech Company
“I was hoping and expecting for a lot of visitors and interest in our new products and so far the interest has overwhelmed me. The people that have visited our stand today have been of a very high quality. We have had people who can buy our equipment and people who will use our equipment visit our booth, so there is a very nice mix of visitors from all areas of the airport world.”
Per Engelbrechtsen, business development director at Beumer Group
“Visitors have really enjoyed learning about the different seating configurations and there’s been a lot of enquires about the bench configuration. The application of IoT to airport seating is completely innovative and provides our partner airports with valuable insight into their day-to-day operations. The technology is highly reliable and be easily incorporated into our Aeris seating configurations.”
Tommaso Mosconi, business development manager/CEO, Tecno