The topical issues of science and technology. Хрестоматия для студентов-бакалавров направления «Лингвистика»
.pdfmatter (PM) emissions in European cities and is the main cause of air-pollution-related deaths and illnesses. In 2015, in the EU, 852.3 million tonnes of CO2 were emitted by road transport, constituting more than 70% of emissions from all modes of transport.
Demography
Settlements need to accommodate a growing elderly population. Globally, the number of people aged 60 years and over is projected to more than double by 2050 and those aged 80 years and over are expected to triple by 2050, compared to 2017. In 2017, the share of the European population aged 60 years and over was 25 % and this proportion is projected to increase up to 35 % by 2050. Authorities can facilitate active ageing by ensuring that public spaces, transport and buildings are accessible to people with limited mobility. Settlements have very diverse demographic structures, requiring mobility systems that can be adapted to become more inclusive and accessible to everyone. (3283)
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Air Transport
Airline Technology Trends 2019
IATA, Future of the Airline Industry-2035
The airline industry, much like technology, is constantly evolving and adapting to new consumer habits, expectations and requirements around safety and security. As such, airlines are always looking for ways to adopt new and emerging technologies such as document management systems into their organisations in order to enhance both the customer experience and internal operations alike. In this article we take a look at three examples of technology trends that airlines are using to shape the future of the industry for 2019 and beyond including:
While the adoption of technology is slowly but surely being adopted by airlines, IATA's Future of the Aviation Industry 2035, states that the industry only "react to new technology rather than lead the way." However, there's no doubt that with the continuous stream of disruptive technology being developed, airline's across the globe are becoming pioneers of change by implementing them. Read the the rest of the article to find out how airlines are using the following technology which will become more prominent in 2019.
Biometric technology
Biometric technology such as fingerprint scanning or facial recognition on smartphones is already being used by
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millions of people around the world as a way to enhance security. Recently though, it’s also been adopted by airlines and airports to transform the customer journey. US carriers Delta Air Lines and Jetblue, for example, allowed for select passengers to trial using their fingerprints at the boarding gates instead of their boarding pass and will eventually enable fingerprint scanning for identification purposes to check-in baggage. This technology could very well eliminate the need for boarding passes and cut down on the need for crew to be present to manually scan them at the gate.
British Airways also trialled the use of biometrics as early as 2017, where 4,000 people tested the facial-scanning technology at Heathrow airport as well as the self-service bag drop points implemented in both Heathrow and Gatwick airports in a bid to “simplify and speed up [their] journeys through the airport.” Additionally technology such as the self-service bag drops are becoming more prominent - Scandinavian Airlines for instance have self-service points in Oslo Airport, Gardermoen. This technology will continue to be implemented for both domestic and international boarding points for the future.
3 Ways to Make Airline Operations More Efficient
AI and robotics
Artificially intelligent chatbots is another form of technology that boomed in 2017 and is widely used around
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the globe already by many different industries. In the case of the air transport industry, more airlines are continuing to focus on providing AI services to their customers. For instance, KLM has incorporated the use of chatbots into the customer journey - the BlueBot (or BB) allows for customers to book their airline tickets through the Facebook Messenger app. A more basic way chatbots can be used is to answer simple questions, therefore freeing up resources required by human agents for more complex customer service issues, such as the one used by Icelandair.
Accessibility
Many airlines and airports are also looking into newer and better ways to enhance the customer experience. In a research study conducted by Medallia, it was found that customers who experienced great service in the past were likely to spend 140% more compared to customers who had a poor past experience. With this kind of thinking in mind, it’s no surprise that airlines want to up their game to provide customers with a better experience in order to gain loyalty in turn. Air New Zealand is one such example of offering an enhanced service to foreign travellers by trialling Google’s
Bluetooth Pixel Buds - headphones which offer live translations in 40 languages using the Pixel handset. This kind of technology can further bridge the gap between languages and make for a smoother, less frustrating customer journey.
The customer experience is also being looked at by Gatwick Airport in terms of navigating around the airport - which can
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be a confusing and stressful experience for many. Some 20,000 Bluetooth beacons have now been fitted to power
Gatwick’s wayfinding tool in augmented reality, which can help guide users to specific locations using the on-screen arrows. The next stage is to allow for airlines to integrate the tool with other systems to send customers personalised information, such as real-time flight information.
Cybersecurity and the cloud
With safety and security paramount to the air transport industry, it’s understandable that 95% of airlines and 96% of airports plan to invest in major cybersecurity programmes over the next three years and 95% of airlines. Moreover, as the cloud market matures, it is now seen as the most secure and scalable way of holding and processing organisational data - such as document management for aircraft OEM data and other important airline documentation. By having all your airline’s documents within a centralised database, it can do away with silos of information, which can increase security risks and disrupt organisational efficiency.
Additionally, using a cloud-based document management solution can further benefit airlines in helping them create a more effective way to improve compliance as well as save time, money and resources in the long-run.
However, it must be noted that as systems and aircraft are becoming more connected, there is a growing risk of cyber threats and attacks. It is therefore important for the airline industry to: "Have an active approach to cybersecurity,
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harmonizing standards, and developing prevention and detection strategies that move beyond their own systems." (5789)
12 Technology Trends For Airlines And Airports To Focus
On In 2020
INITIATIVES // JAN 2020
Technology is central to the future of the air transport industry, and as a testament to this, this week saw Delta Air Lines become the first airline to keynote the annual trade show for innovators and breakthrough technologies. Delta CEO Ed Bastian laid out a compelling vision for the future of travel during his keynote including transformation of the Fly Delta app, parallel reality display screens, captivating entertainment options, full-body wearable exoskeletons, and an AI machine learning operations platform.
Taking inspiration from these ground-breaking developments in the travel tech space, we have compiled our prediction on the most exciting trends and technologies that airlines and airports can expect to shape the passenger experience on the ground and up in the air over the next 12 months and ahead. Take a look:
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Robotics – from self-driving guide robots and autonomous vehicles to avatars and delivery drones
Automation in the aviation industry is gaining momentum due to rapid advancements in the fields of robotics. Robots in the terminal are becoming a more common site and among some of the most recent examples are Fraport’s new self-driving guide robot, called YAPE, for luggage transportation; “Airstar” robot at Incheon Airport; Munich Airport’s Josie Pepper; and British
Airways’ partnership with startup company BotsAndUs to test
AI-powered autonomous robots at Heathrow Terminal 5 to further enhance punctuality for passengers.
As well as robots in the terminal, automated vehicles on the airfield and baggage-related robots are also gaining traction. A prominent example is Vanderlande’s end-to-end baggage logistics solution FLEET, deployed at Rotterdam The Hague Airport, and trialled at Hong Kong International Airport to further improve the efficiency of the baggage handling process, enhance ergonomic working conditions for ground staff and future-proof the airports’ baggage handling operations, so we will likely hear more about this technology in the months to come.
Autonomous vehicles and drones have also been tested in the past couple of years. For instance, Delta Air Lines is currently in partnership with technology-focussed college Georgia Tech and smart city living laboratory Curiosity Lab to identify ways autonomous vehicles can benefit customers and employees. Researchers from all three partners will have access to Curiosity Lab’s 1.5-mile autonomous vehicle test track and
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smart city living laboratory in Peachtree Corners in Atlanta. As autonomous vehicle research advances across the world, Delta sees potential applications for autonomous cars, trucks or buses at airports and beyond. For example, autonomous vehicles could help customers make tight connections across an airport, deliver delayed baggage to customers or transport aircraft parts to airports. Fraport also recently completed a trial of a hybrid aerial vehicle at Frankfurt Airport Terminal 2. The company joined forces with startup Hybrid-Airplane Technologies GmbH to carry out test flights assessing whether the aerial vehicle could be used to perform status checks in the terminals.
Drone delivery is also becoming increasingly popular and recently Edmonton International Airport (EIA) entered a new strategic partnership with Drone Delivery Canada (DDC) that will see the airport become a hub for drone cargo deliveries in Western and Northern Canada. This is expected to be the world’s first regularly scheduled drone delivery service from an airport. Meanwhile, the technology is already gaining traction in the hospitality business with Yotel, for instance, experimenting with the use of drones to deliver food and drink orders to guests at its hotel in Amsterdam, so it is likely that this trend will soon be replicated in the airport terminal.
Another interesting concept to keep an eye out for is avatars. Japanese airline ANA is currently developing new platforms for telepresence to “impact the lives of all 7 billion people on
Earth and to connect people, connect things, and connect ideas and dreams,” shared Kevin Kajitani, Co-director of ANA’s Avatar division. One of the team’s goals is to set up an experiment that could let sports fans experience the 2020
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Tokyo Olympics through telepresence robots sitting in the seats. (3428)
Digital Twins
Digital Twins is a topic that came up on numerous occasions during the FTE conferences in 2019, and so we thought it is worthy of a mention.
SITA Lab is currently working on a fully functional digital twin, which is being tested at a US East Coast airport where the 3D interface is on an 86-inch touch-screen in the operations room. In a recent blog post on SITA’s website, Kevin O’Sullivan, Lead Engineer at SITA Lab, shared that the result will “improve decision-making, based on the holistic view of the airport operations”. He explained: “As well as showing what’s happening now, we can also select a moment in history and play back exactly what happened in the past. It’s a very effective way of investigating the handling of disruption, to identify what can be done better next time.”
However, he added that “a fully-functioning productised digital twin of an airport is still some time off. But as we build it out more widely and deeply, the full extent of its potential is becoming clear.” (1009)
AI & Machine Learning
During the past couple of years, the air transport industry has been showing a great commitment to realising the full potential of artificial intelligence (AI) with a plethora of use cases. On one side, we have seen airlines and airports adopting chatbots
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to communicate with passengers, and on the other to improve operations.
In terms of chatbot applications, last year AirAsia developed and launched its AirAsia Virtual Allstar (AVA), a continuously learning AI-powered chat platform, which won the Silver Award at the FTE APEX Asia EXPO Awards 2019 for the Best Passenger Experience Initiative in the Airline category.
One of the highlights during Ed Bastian’s keynote at CES was a proprietary AI-driven platform to be implemented this year, that will help Delta’s professionals make even smarter operational decisions. The airline claims that it is applying AIdriven machine learning on a scale that’s never been done before by an airline. The proprietary AI-driven platform analyses millions of operational data points – from aircraft positions to flight crew restrictions to airport conditions – to create hypothetical outcomes that help Delta’s staff make critical decisions before, during and after large-scale disruptions. During his keynote, Bastian said: “Our leading source of innovation is our people. Our people shouldn’t be spending all their time taking tickets and scanning boarding passes. They’re too talented for that.”
Elsewhere, KLM has embarked on a unique partnership with Boston Consulting Group (BCG) which has the potential to
“revolutionise global airline operations”. In a recent interview with FTE, Daan Debie, Director Engineering & Architecture, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, explained that KLM has developed a suite of advanced optimisation tools for the Operations Control Centre to help set up robust schedules by implementing
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