Passengers interact with self-service installations and wayfinding apps, and they expect their flight to be at the right gate and to leave on time. None of that would be possible, however, without the software and technology behind the scenes. The 10 companies below and dozens of others will be presenting their latest innovations at Passenger Terminal Expo 2018 in Stockholm, Sweden, March 20-22.
Confidex – Location services for responsive airport apps and asset tracking
Confidex enables the next step in passenger experience and Internet of Things with its MyVia location platform. It allows users to easily provide passengers with indoor navigation and other location services, in addition to tracking assets as they move around.
Confidex uses its own Viking Bluetooth beacons, which are designed to be robust and suitable for both indoor and outdoor use. It places them throughout the airport to build a reliable network that can interface with an app on passengers’ mobile devices. Confidex’s 3D map includes all points of interest, from cafes and shops to lifts, and can be very easily updated when POIs need to be added or removed.
Airports can opt to have Confidex develop a standalone app or have them provide an SDK (software development kit) to integrate the functionality into the airport’s own application.
Functionality goes far beyond the usual wayfinding, however. It allows for notifications when it is time to leave for the gate and it could keep passengers updated about where their luggage is. Alternatively, it can offer parents peace of mind when their children are travelling unaccompanied by showing where they are or by sending an automated message to the child’s phone if they enter the wrong area.
The MyVia platform is also an ideal opportunity for tailored communication. Advertisements can be sent depending on the passenger’s destination or the area of the airport they are in. For example, if someone is travelling between the UK and China, ads can be sent for products available in China or the UK, in English and in Chinese.
Apart from improving the passenger experience, MyVia can also be used as a tool to keep track of assets such as baggage trolleys and other vehicles in and around the airport.
Confidex’s solution is a holistic one, as it provides not just an app, maps or beacons, but a complete platform. It does everything, from providing and installing the hardware and making sure it works as intended, to mapping the whole airport and providing a turnkey user application and a back-end dashboard with analytics, business intelligence and status updates on all of the beacons.
Visit Confidex at stand 835
Airport Research Center – Stand allocation planning made easy with new simulation software module
Airport Research Center will demonstrate the latest addition to its range of CAST simulation software – a scenario-based stand allocation and planning module developed in conjunction with Zürich Airport.
The new module complements ARC’s existing software suite, which includes ‘Terminal’, ‘Aircraft’ and ‘Vehicle’ modules, helping airports determine their strategies to accommodate the future fleet mix and meet airline preferences.
Visitors to Passenger Terminal Expo 2018 will learn how they can use the new module to test schedules and verify how many flights can be added to the schedule without exceeding stand capacity, as well as check the impact of construction projects on stand availability and, ultimately, decide when and where to build extra stands.
Fully scalable, it includes an extensive aircraft database, clear charts, visualizations and live animations of the effects of stand allocation changes.
Airport Research Center will also promote its consulting services, demonstrate its recent ice- and snow-clearing simulation for Oslo Airport, and reveal how it can help airports with level-of-service assessments, performed in cooperation with IATA, using its CAST software suite.
Meet Airport Research Center at stand 1302
Copenhagen Optimization – Improved check-in desk allocation with new ‘Better Check-in’ software
To enhance the check-in desk allocation process, Copenhagen Optimization will present ‘Better Check-in’ at this year’s Passenger Terminal Expo. This brand-new addition to its existing Better Airport software suite takes into account airline preferences and forecasts of passenger and baggage flow to manage the allocation of check-in counters, as well as the corresponding queue areas.
Stockholm Arlanda Airport, where Better Check-in is already in use, has reported a decrease in check-in counter demand by three counters, despite an 8.5% increase in the passenger peak. It also estimates that the number of waiting passengers has fallen by 35%.
Better Check-in is part of the Better Airport software suite, which also includes modules for security, flow forecast, border control, baggage handling, stand and gate allocation and shift selection. As such, it integrates perfectly with the other modules to form a common enterprise-wide platform that is easy to follow for all airport partners and ensures a holistic overview for accurate scenario planning.
Visit Copenhagen Optimization’s booth for a live demo of Better Airport and be sure to attend Kasper Hounsgaard’s presentation on Day 2 of the Passenger Terminal Conference to discover how customers such as London Luton Airport and Dublin Airport have benefited from implementing the Better Airport suite.
Visit Copenhagen Optimization at stand 1135.
LocusLabs– Turnkey location services for airports
LocusLabs, which has provided location services to more than 100 airports around the world, will be at Passenger Terminal Expo 2018 to launch its new augmented reality capability.
The platform enables location awareness on a micro level within applications. The technology not only makes it possible to create and continually manage detailed maps of indoor spaces, but also map people, products and things for consumer mobile apps, web, interactive kiosks, digital signage, augmented reality and enterprise applications.
LocusLabs can then provide SDKs that easily integrate into existing apps to provide location context as part of its LocusMaps product. Using a hybrid of technologies including BLE beacons, wi-fi, geomagnetism, as well as third party solutions such as smart lighting, airports can set up features like location-aware search, walking directions and indoor positioning in days rather than months.
LocusVMS (Venue Management System), meanwhile, lets authorized users easily edit and publish map content to every application at once from a web browser, doing away with arcane and cumbersome software that would previously have been needed. An updated LocusVMS v2.0 is coming soon.
This way, airports are able to manage and control location content and access analytics, allowing them to establish and track metrics and KPIs for digital engagement, airport space utilization, effectiveness of marketing, signage and physical advertising, staff placement, and more.
At Passenger Terminal Expo 2018, LocusLabs will present a brand new Augmented Reality capability which complements LocusMaps, its flagship product. CEO Campbell Kennedy will be speaking about it at the Conference on a panel titled ‘The Augmented Airport – Practical Applications in AR’.
Visit LocusLabs’ stand for live demos of its mobile wayfinding products, an interactive wayfinding kiosk, digital signs with handoff capability to mobile devices, and a number of use cases where partners integrated the platform in their apps.
See LocusLabs at stand 1651
ISO Software Systeme – Easy visualization of flight information
ISO Software Systeme has added a top-down visualization of flight information to its Total Airport Management Suite SKYport.
SKYport, ISO’s software suite, has been providing reliable information to 65 airports and their partners for many years. New for 2018 is the ‘Bird View’ function, which overlays color-coded flight information with existing aerial photography or technical drawings to provide an instant and intuitive situational overview for all aircraft turnaround process steps.
The software suite has a modular design, with elements for AODB, RMS, FIDS, business intelligence and billing. It is also entirely web-based, so it doesn’t require installation on workstations. With intuitive, browser-based graphic interfaces, exceptional integration capabilities and easy adaptation to customer-specific demands, SKYport AODB is a flexible, cost-effective single source of information for airports of all sizes.
Visit ISO Software Systeme at Passenger Terminal Expo 2018 to learn why 20 airports have adopted SKYport in the last year alone. This includes smaller airports such as Liege in Belgium and large multi-airport operations like Fraport Greece and Fraport Brasil.
Visit ISO Software Systeme at stand 1650
Adecs Airinfra – Modular AODB for regional airports
Adecs Airinfra will present AirLink, an airport operational database (AODB) management system, at Passenger Terminal Expo 2018. The system is ideal for regional airports seeking to reduce costs by streamlining operations and decision making, while ensuring better use of resources and increasing collaboration between airport partners.
The system is web-based, providing mobile access, cross-platform compatibility and seamless updates. A centralized database ensures real-time information, data integrity and security.
AirLink’s modular architecture allows smaller airports to opt in or out of modules of the software as and when they need them, thus avoiding unnecessary complexity and expense. It is also CDM-ready, which means that smaller airports can enjoy the benefits of selected A-CDM features, without needing to adopt all of it. When the full A-CDM suite is required in the future, it can simply be bolted on.
By providing shared, timely, accurate and reliable information to all airport partners thanks to its collaborative features, AirLink is said to make processes more predictable and to give all airport partners a clearer view of the situation at any given time.
Meet Adecs Airinfra at stand 935
MER/Galiot – Safety and compliance software for ground-handling agents and airports of any size
Software company MER Systems will present the 2018 version of its Galiot Safety & Compliance Management System, which will allow airports to comply with new EASA and ICAO regulations and take advantage of Galiot’s feed-forward safety management control strategy.
Galiot Safety Management System (SMS) allows airports and aerodromes to log and keep track of safety hazards; assign staff to investigate, resolve and review them; and facilitates managing reports and performing risk assessments.
The 2018 edition of Galiot helps airports and aerodromes to comply with EASA (European Aviation Safety Agency) 139/2014 regulations and has built-in functionality to ally changes made for EU regulations with ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization) equivalents.
Also new is the implementation of the ‘feed-forward’ philosophy. Using live performance measurements and occurrence monitoring, it can instantly calculate and compare collected data with pre-defined target values and values at which alerts should be displayed.
Traditional approaches often neglect safeguards such as audits, surveys, reviews and training, which are important as they are indicative of the environment they are performed in. SMS takes into account these environmental variables to use them as standards for comparison to anticipated reference values.
Galiot is easy to use and can be quickly implemented because it is web-based. It can be purchased and licensed per server, but there is also the possibility to license it as software-as-a-service, making it an affordable option for both large and small airports.
Visit MER’s stand to learn more about its SMS and the whole Galiot software suite, which also includes the SQM audit management and WLM wildlife management components.
Meet MER Systems at stand 604
ADB Safegate – Guiding systems help aircraft to the gate
Airports looking for innovative ways to handle more air traffic, safely and cost-effectively, without building costly new infrastructure, should head to ADB Safegate’s booth to learn how capacity can be expanded by improving the efficiency of existing systems.
The company will show how it can improve the gate turnaround process by integrating an airport’s various systems, applying automation and sharing information between air traffic control and ground handling to help achieve the fastest possible gate turnaround.
Integration enables the gate teams to be guided by an accurate aircraft arrival time, helping to ensure the right resources are in place and can move straight into action.
As the aircraft nears the apron, the Advanced Visual Docking Guidance System (A-VDGS) guides it to safely arrive at the gate and displays the target off-block time (TOBT), a key parameter for planning aircraft departure times. Throughout the turnaround, the TOBT is updated using information from the A-CDM system.
Visible to the ground-handling teams, the TOBT also provides a way of monitoring the progress of the turnaround, including baggage handling, refueling, passenger boarding and so on. The result is increased airport throughput by efficiently using resources and accurately scheduling aircraft movements.
Visit ADB SAFEGATE at stand 135
Emulate3D – Software systems assist with baggage-handling design
Software products created by Emulate3D help with the design and commissioning of airport baggage-handling systems (BHS). Sim3D data-driven models enable users to understand the behavior of complex systems under a variety of operating conditions and make informed decisions about them. System development choices are based on repeatable experiments, and the overall level of risk associated with the project is reduced.
Models are constructed or generated from catalogs of standard BHS equipment modules, and synthetic or real passenger and flight data is used to drive them. Statistics are collected as the model runs, and users may choose to observe the behavior of specific areas under certain conditions to understand how problems arise, and can then decide how to avoid them. Among other things, simulation models help to answer questions about capacity, resource allocation, equipment choices, system redundancy and overall system robustness in the face of disruption.
Once the final design and operation of the system has been decided, the focus shifts from experimental simulation to control system development and virtual verification, using Emulate3D Controls Testing. This virtual commissioning approach connects the real control system to a model of the BHS and effectively removes the logical verification of the control system from the project’s critical path. Once controls testing can be carried out in parallel to the construction and installation of the real handling equipment, this phase of the project can be started much earlier than was previously possible, ensuring it can be completed before acceptance testing and handover.
Emulate3D Controls Testing reduces on-site time substantially, and by removing an unpredictable element from the project’s critical path and enabling it to be carried out earlier in the project and in parallel with other tasks, overall project risks are reduced.
Emulate3D are at stand 820
Damarel – Next generation of FiNDnet ground-handling software to be launched at PTE 2018
Damarel is launching the new generation of its FiNDnet ground-handling software suite at Passenger Terminal Expo 2018. The software has provided turn management, service recording and billing to ground handlers around the world for more than 20 years to become a well-known system trusted by many major airports around the world.
The new version updates the entire operational tool to provide more features and benefits than ever, delivered to the user’s browser. The new user interface streamlines interaction and keeps staff engaged and informed, while comprehensive single- and multi-station tools ensure complete operational oversight. Powerful new reporting tools and dashboards deliver the necessary information to react to events and make the right decisions.
From ramp agents to station managers, CFOs to CEOs, FiNDnet gives users complete control over day-to-day and strategic business, in addition to making sure ground handling operations are properly rewarded with comprehensive turn management, service recording, SLA reporting and billing automation.
Meet Damarel Systems at stand 1115