How IT Solutions help travelers today.
By Sarah Samuel

Airport - "the commercial installation where passenger and cargo planes take off and land", the Harrap's dictionary definition of an airport.

I have been in and out of airports as a passenger since I was 3 years old. It started with holidays to visit my grandparents. As I did not study in my native country, I had to fly back and forth during school terms to see my family. Nowadays, I fly mostly for work and once a year for a vacation.

My job requires me to travel and on average, I travel to a different country about once in every 6 - 8 weeks. So airports are like a second home to me. Not only that, my job is selling airport solutions, so you could say, I not only use airports regularly but I also understand the 'internal' workings of airports fairly well. As a passenger, we barely see how the whole process from check-in to take-off to landing takes place. We take it all for granted that we will get to the end destination safely. There is however a pretty complex process the airport goes through to ensure our safety, security, comfort and ease of travel. So, what I would like to do is share with you the behind-the-scenes of an airport that you do not see when you travel.

The airport process can basically be broken down to 4 groups of activities. There are facilities like the check-in counters, the baggage belts, the security screening machines, boarding lounges and many others. Then, there is the information category, which is comprised of information displays for the public to see as well as checklists and procedures for airport personnel to follow. The third category is the actual information systems themselves, such as the network running through the airport, the airline network, the check-in systems, the Flight Information management system, the air traffic control systems and other information management systems. The final category is the personnel themselves who operate the airport. Integrate all this and you get the seamless operations of an airport that you and I take for granted every time we make a trip.

So what happens when you get to an airport to take a flight? You basically pick up a baggage trolley (a facility) and you look at the flight display (information) to locate your check in counter to check-in for your flight. At the counter, you are helped by a check-in clerk (airport/airline personnel) who uses the check-in systems (information systems) to ensure you get a seat allocated and your baggage gets to the correct destination. At that check-in counter, there are other various facilities in action - the check-in counter itself, the baggage conveyor belt, the weighing machine and finally, the in-line X-ray for a security check on your check-in luggage. A baggage tag with the bar code which the clerk attaches to your luggage, is read by sensors placed around the belly of the airport to ensure that your bags gets on the correct aircraft. The baggage systems are so sophisticated these days, that you are able to check in less that an hour before your flight departs and your bags still makes it on board. Now, the check-in systems send a message to the destination airport on the manifest of passengers departing from a particular airport. This manifest is also sent to the aircraft along with the baggage list where reconciliation between passengers and bags are done before the aircraft takes off, to ensure, that each bag has an owner and is accounted for.

Once you are done with your check-in, you normally will go for some shopping or if you are like me, a just-in-time to board passenger, then you can make a quick dash to your boarding gate, but before that, you have to go through a security check and border control or immigration. One of those unseen elements is the planning of the number of immigration counters and security checkpoints that are required. The airport operator uses a resource management system, that has the flight schedule as well as the type and size of aircrafts going through their airport at any given time. With this information, the resource management system is able to plan, not only the number of immigration counters and security check points but also plan which aircraft is parked at which boarding gate to ensure safety of the airport. This is to have maximum efficiency of facilities and resources as well as to minimize the cost of operating an airport. To really minimize operating costs, the resource systems also sends the building facilities control a message to activate the lights and air-condition of a particular boarding gate an hour before the aircraft takes off to ensure comfortable climatic conditions for the passengers. It also activates security measures such as who can actually access certain restricted areas at what time to ensure complete passenger safety. You need to realize that not all of these processes are automated. Some of them may actually be manual but they are processes nonetheless that keep safety, security and comfort of passengers as a priority.

One of the other aspects of making travel as easy as possible is signage. Most people, even frequent travelers, find the prospect of navigating through an airport and the various procedures such as security and immigration, quite stressful. Good signage helps reduce this stress as the signage guides you through the various procedures as well as gets you to the correct location you need to be at. With my frequent traveling, I am not as nervous as I used to be in an airport but still, an unfamiliar airport does cause me some amount of stress. I was recently at a leading European airport on transit. Since my earlier flight was delayed, my transit time at this airport was shortened from 90 minutes to 30 minutes. I had 30 minutes to disembark, get a new boarding pass and board the aircraft. Luckily, I had checked-in my luggage all the way home, so I did not have to worry about that. Those 30 minutes were probably the most stressful 30 minutes of my travel life as there were no informative signages to direct me to the transfer counters or even to the information counter for assistance. I finally made it to the door as it was closing.

So, it is not just the systems that make the airport seamless but it is the combination of systems, information, human resource and facilities that make the airport a safe, secure and comfortable haven to start and end a journey. The next time you take a flight somewhere, take a moment to really look at the hustle and bustle of an airport and appreciate the integration of services that your airport offers.

About the writer

Sarah Samuel is responsible for developing and implementing the commercial strategies for XYBASE. She heads the commercial development for airportXchange.com, the technology for portal development for the airport industry and airportXpert, a suite of web-enabled airport operations systems.

Sarah is a graduate in Economics from Iowa, USA. Upon graduation she worked at what was known then as Price Waterhouse. She then joined XYBASE as a consultant and moved on to the present position as a Senior Vice President, International Business Development.

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