Passenger Terminal Expo and Conference celebrated its 20th anniversary celebrations in style today (March 15) with a record numbers of visitors, delegates and exhibitors.
With more than 225 exhibitors and 6,800 visitors, including 1,300 conference delegates and 375 speakers, this year is the biggest and best Passenger Terminal Expo ever.
In the exhibition hall Rockwell Collins has launched its next-generation common use passenger processing system, ARINC cMUSE, and Safran Identity and Security has released its latest facial recognition solution, MorphoFACE. An electric driverless shuttle bus from navya has also captured the attention of delegates as did CAIBA, an advanced customer service robot from Japanese company Indy Associates.
Alongside the exhibition, Passenger Terminal Conference 2017 began with an opening address by Jos Nijhuis, CEO and president of Schiphol Group, the operator of Amsterdam Airport Schiphol. This was followed by nine sessions on the first day alone, including a presentation on passenger tracking and guidance by Martin Augustin, head of processes at Munich Airport Terminal 2 and a panel discussion focusing on customer service transformation in a digital world.
Passenger Terminal Expo also hosts the Skytrax World Airport awards ceremony, the overall winner of which this year is Singapore Changi Airport. Another event highlight is the gala dinner, taking place at the Beurs Van Berlage in Amsterdam from 7:00pm.
Louise Brix-Hansen, head of airport optimization at Copenhagen Airports, said, “I’ve really enjoyed attending the conference, there’s been a lot of really interesting speakers and I’ve found the venue this year is even better than last year.
“I work in airport optimization which applies to all areas of the airport so it’s good to have a wide range of subjects from security and terminal design, to passenger processing and operations. Our hope is to be inspired by the latest technologies and to learn from other airports in terms of previous challenges.”
Normunds Feierbergs, board member of Riga International Airport, said, “It’s been great to see what’s happening in the industry and what the future looks like for the big airports. We also have some big plans for Riga in the next five years and beyond, and the show contains some excellent technologies that we would like to use in the terminal.”
Hakan Andersson, director of airports and global transportation, Unisys, said, “The Expo’s been great. I’m meeting clients, talking to a lot of the exhibitors and partners, and even checking out the competitors.
“We’re also looking for some partnering options for some new solutions that we don’t necessarily have in our portfolio. This is a good exhibition and a good venue for networking because you have all the major players here.”
Gabriel de Geza, chief engineer, engineering and maintenance, Civil Aviation Authority of Botswana, said, “I’ve been impressed by the breadth of topics and the size of the conference. I’m interested in the detail of airport planning. I wanted to learn how other airports are tackling the common challenges, developing and working to meet passenger expectations.
“The topics are relevant and I am looking forward to visiting the exhibition at convenient times around the conference. I can still download presentations that I’ve missed later on.”
Kim Madsen, senior system manager of IT and controls, airport and logistics systems, Beumer Group, said, “We have been able to meet with a lot of customers. At two minutes past 10:00am there was a flood of people coming towards us.
“It’s great because we put a lot of effort into our presence here. You have a mix of system managers and technical here, so you get to do business and meet the technical people.”
