Airports Looking to Renew Security Capabilities

Airports Looking to Renew Security Capabilities

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For many airports, the investment focus has shifted from passenger processing technology to security with the rise of global terror, some of which directly targets air travel, according to an Airport IT Trends Survey, concerning global airport industry.

Matthys Serfontein, SITA Vice President, Airport Solutions, said: “The technology trends at airports reflect the changing world. Investments to support passenger and airport security are up while the increasing demands of the connected traveler for self-service and mobile services are also being met. This year we’ve seen a shift where airports are also looking to create technology to generate non-aeronautical revenue. By 2019, 84% hope to make money by enabling the purchase of airport services through their mobile app. And there is also a clear trend to provide hybrid public Wi-Fi services that combine the convenience of limited free Wi-Fi with commercial offerings. Over the next three years the proportion of airports planning to offer unrestricted free Wi-Fi will drop from 74% to 54%. This change is mainly driven by airports in North America and the Middle East.”

SITA’s research takes a look further into the airport’s digital transformation exploring areas such as wearables, biometrics, robotics and context-aware services and how airports plan to use these innovative technologies over the next five to 10 years. In the light of the increased focus on security it is not surprising that interest in biometric technology, which supports fast and secure passenger processing, is high. More than one third of airports will invest in single biometric travel token projects in the next five years jumping to the majority (52%) within the decade.

According to adsadvance.co.uk, these findings reflect the views of more than 225 airports who together manage 36% of the global traffic or 2.3 billion passengers. This year 50% of survey respondents came from airports within the Top 100 in terms of revenue.