UAVs and mobile tracking technologies

UAVs and mobile tracking technologies

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Illustration
Illustration

Unmanned vehicles and innovative mobile apps – these are the cutting edge technologies used to maintain order at large airports nowadays. The latest addition are the mobile tracking technologies.

Helsinki international airport is the first in the world to enable passengers to sue mobile tracking technologies in real time from the moment they arrive at the parking lot until they board the flight gate. The idea is to improve the ability to monitor the passengers’ movements. Airport managements must know where the bottlenecks are, where the lines are too long, whether there are any delays and flights postponed. In return, passengers know, through the applications on their smartphones, when their flight is expected, where their boarding is, what to do with the hand luggage, how long the security check will be and even promotions from the duty free. This is according to a CNN report.

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Unmanned systems conference 2014 – Israel

Similar technology is already in use at London’s Gatwick and Luton airports and Paris’s Charles De Gaulle. Easy Jet is using UAVs, flying robots, to monitor the movement of its aircrafts at various airports, in order to provide passengers accurate information in case of flight delays, as well as in order to report its flight engineers of any real time malfunctions. The purpose is to shorten by as much as possible the time an aircraft requires to stay on the ground.

This method of tracking passengers in real time is not everyone’s cup of tea. Some view it as an invasion of privacy, so many airports offer this app, but make it clear to passengers they may refuse and simply turn their cellphones off and receive regular service. Airport managements communicate to passengers that this is in no way a violation of their privacy, as these tracking applications do not pick any of their details up – only transmit details to them, about what goes on at the airport to streamline their stay and make it more pleasant and short.