When Amadeus entered the airport IT market in 2011, we set out to free airports from the constraints of inflexible legacy IT systems. This was in contrast to the industry’s traditional approach that prevented innovation in airport passenger services and business models. At the core of our approach, was our belief in the benefits of cloud computing. We believed it offered airports a new way to deliver better passenger services, as well as to rethink and modernize their business model.
We envisaged airports moving away from rigid and expensive on-site infrastructure to service passengers, and from the complexity of costly networks connecting to different airlines op-erating at their premises. We could see the benefits of accessing software on-demand over the internet. Passenger handling doesn’t have to take place at the same, fixed locations especially when airport capacity is constantly changing. And with growing passenger volumes, we knew automation would be key in servicing passengers.
Seeing the increasing adoption by the airport market of our solutions has been very rewarding. The last twelve months, due to the challenges of COVID-19, have further accelerated the digital evolution of airports that was already underway. Airports have been forced to scale capacity up and down at short notice, redistribute airlines between terminals, as well as roll out new touchless passenger services in record time. This level of agility is difficult to achieve with systems that were created for a different time and a different world. The demands of today requires high-performance cloud architecture. As an example, one of our customers needed to deliver a contactless end-to-end experience ahead of last year’s summer season at several airports. We were able to implement rapid modifications to its bag-tag printing service, making it touchless in just four months, something that would have taken much longer with a traditional approach.
This month represents a milestone for Amadeus’ airport IT business. Through our continued investment in in-house R&D and strategic acquisitions, we are now presenting to the market Amadeus Flow, an integrated cloud solution for airport passenger servicing and data driven airport operations. This solution incorporates applications, hardware and services. With Amadeus Flow, service agents only need to leverage internet connectivity to access airport and airline systems and realize the flexibility of operations that they need today and will need tomorrow. There’s no need for dedicated local cabling and communications infrastructure in the airport. Think of the simplicity that’s common when using consumer cloud services. Our platform is ‘mobile’, so check-in and bag-drop service points can be rapidly deployed, on or off the airport. This helps disperse passengers from check-in areas and meet new requirements for social distancing.
Airports can ramp up and down services easily and swiftly to address unanticipated fluctuations in airline operations and passenger demand. The agile and flexible foundational services allow rapid reconfiguration of processes to address dynamic periods of irregular operations. Costs for both airports and airlines are further contained, solution deployment times radically reduced and disruption is minimized. An adaptive, end-to-end flexible airport infrastructure is now a reality.
Amadeus Flow makes it possible for airports to easily roll out new innovations. For example, offering travelers a full range of contactless credit card payment methods accessible from the cloud to all check-in points. Another important area of airport digital transformation is around biometric passenger identification that is gradually being incorporated at every stage of the passenger’s airport journey. Biometry looks likely to become a standard for airports across the world and the cloud can be a key enabler to simplify the deployment of the solution and accelerate adoption. Offering an end-to-end biometric experience to passengers requires a very complex web of integration with multiple stakeholders involved. Airports and airlines can attempt to build these individual links themselves using APIs but that effectively requires them to become systems integration firms, which is both costly and time-consuming. Amadeus Flow brings the connectivity to airline systems built-in to offload that complexity.
The pandemic keeps demanding that systems are responsive and agile. It seems likely that travelers will be required to prove their health status using a digital health passport of some kind such as IATA Travel Pass or Common Pass. The tight connectivity of Amadeus Flow with airline systems can make health information available at airport passenger touchpoints. Passengers could proceed through the airport if and only if the necessary health requirements have been verified beforehand, and the check process can be done automatically.
Thanks to the integration of our solutions across various passenger touchpoints, we are able to provide insights that enable a proactive airport management and resolution of problems before it impacts the passenger experience. With the right solutions, airports will be able to understand the context at the right time and the impact ahead of time for a sound forecasting. We can provide insights that enable airports to react fast and make changes where necessary, for example, prevent queues and out-of-service events.
Today’s world is more complex than when the term ‘passenger processing’ was coined, and our vision is to create a platform for airports that is the heart of an adaptive passenger servicing architecture. We want to put it at the service of airports and ensure that their ability to manage fluctuating capacity is no longer limited by footprint, fixed infrastructure to service passengers, or outdated systems. This isn’t just about products and services, it’s about business innovation. It’s about supporting airports in building a brighter future.
Executive Vice President Airport IT, Amadeus
PAVIX: Proven Winner for All Airport Concrete Infrastructure
International Chem-Crete Corporation (ICC) manufactures and sells PAVIX, a unique line of crystalline waterproofing products that penetrate into the surface of cured concrete to fill and seal pores and capillary voids, creating a long lasting protective zone within the concrete substrate.
Once concrete is treated, water is prevented from penetrating through this protective zone and causing associated damage, such as freeze-thaw cracking, reinforcing steel corrosion, chloride ion penetration, and ASR related cracking.
This white paper discusses how the PAVIX CCC100 technology works and its applications.