For airports today, the priority is delivering a seamless and safe end-to-end experience for travelers as they begin to return. One that harnesses the latest technology to meet new passenger demands for a more convenient, automated and safe airport experience.
These same drivers sit behind the newly integrated cloud solution, Amadeus Flow, which is the culmination of our 10-year investment in airport technology. Flow links a complete, modular set of applications, hardware, platform and services together in the cloud so airports have true agility, adaptation and innovation in passenger servicing for the first time. With Flow, airports and airlines don’t need to be systems integrators; instead they can deploy technical and business innovation simply and quickly.
Prioritize technology that enables operational flexibility
The current crisis has exposed the constraints of legacy systems at check-in, bag drop and boarding. But it needn’t be this way. Amadeus customer Avinor managed to deliver a fully end-to-end contactless experience at airports across Norway in just three months.
Elsewhere in the world, airline and airport customers were able to rapidly scale up capacity to quickly repatriate passengers at the beginning of the outbreak. In one case, thousands of passengers disembarking cruise ships at regional airports in the Caribbean, which lacked the infrastructure to handle massive passenger numbers, were served using portable check-in devices. This was possible because the IT infrastructure was cloud-based, enabling an agile response.
In both cases, customers had the flexibility to respond to the rapidly changing industry landscape, thanks to Amadeus’s systems. With a cloud approach, airports can adapt and scale without the need for new local IT infrastructure or the development of specific APIs for each airline. The Amadeus platform can also be used alongside existing infrastructure, helping airports to scale at a pace that’s right for them.
Take an end-to-end approach to biometrics
Gains from automating passenger identification at every point of service will be greatest for the airports that
have considered the entire end-to-end passenger experience from the outset. That is because it’s not only important to identify the passengers, but also how they need to be served.
This means being able to constantly update passengers on their flight status, from check-in to boarding, and enabling them to enrol for biometrics both off-airport using a mobile device or at any service point within the airport.
Crucially, it means bringing biometric identity together with airline systems, so service is personalized, accurate and fully automated. With unique experience in biometric and airline systems, Amadeus achieves this, delivering live updates from check-in to boarding, so passengers are alerted to any changes and airport stakeholders are updated on passenger movements in real time.
Consider new off-airport and premium passenger services
During a period when travelers are choosing to spend less time in the terminal, why not take your services to them? For example, airports, airlines and ground handlers could offer an off-airport check-in service whereby passengers are able to check in and have their bags collected from their hotels or homes.
Additionally, airports could offer priority lanes or VIP spaces, where passengers are served in new areas of the airport as part of a premium service. Not only could this unlock new sources of revenue, it could also enhance the passenger experience by enabling passengers to be served as per a premium model. When IT infrastructure is flexible, all stakeholders can begin to offer a catalog of new passenger services.
Amadeus can provide support at every stage of an airport’s transformation journey, de-risking upgrades and guiding customers through change. Amadeus is actively co-creating new approaches to passenger service with airports across the world by harnessing the power of modern, flexible, cloud-based technology.
This article was originally published in the April issue of Passenger Terminal World magazine.