So NEXTT is the program we've launched⦠and you'll all be hearing much more about this in 2018 so please look out for
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Last year at Global Media Day, we said we were about to launch a new initiative on the ‘Airport of the Future’. We are now pleased to provide you with an update on this work, the concepts defined, the growing industry momentum being created and the work to come. And as you’ll note we have a new name for the overall concept – NEXTT that is New Experience Travel Technologies. As what we are doing is not just looking at the transformation of airports, we are looking at transformation of the complete ground journey for all the elements that currently move through the airport – the passenger, the baggage cargo and of course the aircraft. Airport transport is not just about the flight – it’s about the complete journey from home to end destination and back home again, or from cargo dispatcher to end recipient.
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Before we explain NEXTT, let’s recap on a couple of figures - very quickly. This is in effect the problem statement. Our forecasts predict there will be 7.2 billion passengers per annum by 2035, which is nearly 100% more than travelling today. Naturally, we wish to ensure that all those who need and wish to travel can do so. Similarly, the cargo industry needs to prepare to support growth expectations: It is anticipated that by 2035, there will be 70% more freighters flying, which is over 3000 cargo aircraft. We not only need to serve an increasing volumes but these passengers and cargo customers are, rightly, becoming increasingly impatient and have more demanding expectations of the level of service they should receive. Are we able to accommodate this if we continue on the same path of infrastructure build as today?
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When we look at the top 100 airports, by passenger volume, we see nearly all airports will need some sort of major infrastructure project within the next decade. But can we built infrastructure fast enough to meet the capacity demand – remembering the issues related to planning approval and the costs or complexity of building ever bigger and bigger airports. Are the airports, when developing their infrastructure plans, really making the best use of technology advancements and advanced processes? We need a new way of looking at providing capacity - we need to ensure we make the best use of technology and advanced processes and then building the necessary infrastructure around that – not the other way round as is largely done today. And that’s why we in IATA are coordinating an industry effort to help determine how the airport experience may change in the future and how indeed the overall journey to and from airport will change to meet technology innovation and customer expectations Once again, air transport is not just about the flight – it’s about the complete journey - home to destination
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So what do we see happening in the future … I’d like to run a short video to introduce you to the collaborate effort IATA is undertaking.
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Click to watch video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SonBCZRAwuk NEXTT - Let's build the journey of the future A collaboration between IATA & ACI, NEXTT (New Experience Travel Technologies) aims to develop a common vision to enhance the transport experience for passengers and shippers that will guide industry investments and help governments evolve regulatory framework.
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So NEXTT is the program we’ve launched… and you’ll all be hearing much more about this in 2018 so please look out for this. As you can see we are partnering with Airports Council International on this and we already have a number of key airports already supporting the activity through their initiatives - Dubai airports, London Heathrow airport, Bangalore airport, Amsterdam Schiphol airport and Shenzhen airport. And we also have a number of other, technology providers, innovators and consultants who are very keen to join. Now let’s hear more about the NEXTT themes and concepts.
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The New Experience Travel Technologies concepts fall primarily into three focus areas: Off – airport activities -
What can happen off-airport to facilitate earlier processing and offer more customization.
Advanced processing -
How can advanced processing at the airport facilitate simpler, quicker more coordinated and indeed customized passenger, cargo and baggage clearance?
Interactive decision making -
Finally how can this all be pulled together to create that essential data backbone and how can this be used
We’ll explain these 3 themes in a little more detail. But before I do It is important to note that we are not considering these themes and every concept to be applied as a one-size fit for all airports – decisions will need
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to be made by airports based on their local circumstances and complexity.
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Off – airport activities The vision is that the majority of processes will occur "off-airport" in a location that best suits the customer. This shall happen in both a virtual and physical sense. For many processes, this is enabled by a digital transformation. Activities that historically required a manual check could now occur as a digital process. For those elements which will always require a physical interface, distributed locations throughout cities could be used. This will improve the convenience for customers and alleviates pressure on processing at the airport. We shall see changes in how you Shop & Book - more choices and offerings that aren’t just limited to the booking of a flight. Can we urge governments and authorities to embrace a digital revolution such that Travel Authorization and Customs Controls can be managed digitally from time of booking right through to arrivals? What role can airlines and airports play to improve the data exchanges and minimize the need for physical document checks at the airport? An optional preclearance approach will be reassuring for customers and enables a riskbased assessment of the physical checks required. Its great to see several governments (including the USA, UK and Australian) are actively exploring how they can facilitate these changes. Amsterdam Schiphol and the Dutch government have a highly collaborative approach to solving issues at border
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control through their Digital Airport program. The project set-up and the attitude of all involved not only is accelerating the process to implement changes but also enables more options to be explored. Assumptions or preconceptions of what a government will or won’t agree to do are avoided as the government are involved in these discussions. Most critically airports should be highly connected to the cities they serve. The sector on an aircraft needs to become an integrated component of a complete journey which may use several modes of transport (both traditional and new innovative modes). The locations to drop off or collect cargo and baggage will be numerous, secure, and convenient. Passenger can also commence their journey from these secure entry gates within the city which provide access to multimodal connections straight to the airport, bypassing the need for processes within the terminal building. We have been discussing the pod to plane concept with Dubai Airport.
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Advanced processing There remains great potential to further improve customer experience, bring greater operational efficiency and increase safety and security with greater use of the technology that exists today. The opportunities for automation and robotics are numerous given the repetitive nature of many processes. Travel processes are updated to use new technologies, reflecting and enhancing the way of our daily lives. This creates attractive experiences for all users, passenger and staff alike. This is not simply a matter of using new technology to optimize legacy process but rethinking what actions are truly needed or desired.
From a passenger perspective our ONE ID project is at the core of this. But whether it is a person, bag, cargo shipment, vehicle or other – establishing identity at a touchpoint should be efficient and friction-free. This requires the technology to capture identity data and robust identity management systems to authenticate the data captured. All of our partnering airports have all trialed some components of ONE ID. It is noteworthy the difference government strategy makes to this process. India’s national identity program created an easier solution at Bangalore Airport. Although I should swiftly add that the trials are all inclusive and have an alternative approach for validating the identify of foreign passport holders.
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Passenger experience has undergone significant improvements with automation at the core of this change: Digital automation has made check-in functions invisible for many passenger. Self-service equipment automates several other touchpoints at the airport. The interface with passenger shall continue to reflect the level of automation in daily life so that the experience feels exciting but convenient. Shenzhen airport have explored the use of robots. Primarily at this stage for passenger information as there is still some development required for these to completely be effective. The robot could easily detect whether the passenger was speaking English or Chinese but differentiating between Mandarin and Cantonese from a single passenger question proved to be tricky. Non-customer facing operations on the airport ramp and for cargo operations, which have remained broadly the same for decades, will advance with automation. BA together with Heathrow have been active in this area and you may spot a driverless tugs doing the aircraft pushback. There are many other aspects being considered for automation but more research and validation is required., It’s not simply automation for the sake of it.
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Interactive decision making Be it interactions between passenger, airlines and airport; baggage handler and airline; or freight forwarder, airline and ground handler – better use of data and communication is the key to optimizing airport operations. Coordinating data sources, using distributed ledger technologies or cloud applications should also allow customers to access real-time tracking of flights, baggage and shipments, providing control and peace of mind. With various initiatives underway, there is a need to demonstrate likely industry level solutions and determine standardization needs. The use of predictive modeling and artificial intelligence will enable swifter real-time decisions using a wider array of data than could be performed by any human. Awareness of the changes to a passenger’s journey or the status or cargo or baggage will enable the airport to best address the needs of all and airlines to optimize the decision-making across their whole network. Increasing our situational awareness is the first step – simply knowing that you are accessing trusted, reliable real-time information is crucial. Without using consistent definitions and creating an interface for information sharing, the current confusion and frustration will only get worse. To check the status for your flight, how many sources do you currently consult? An airline app? an airport app? screens at the airport? And for good measure just google
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search too? Did they all provide the same response? Which one did you trust? Of course we can then add to the pool of reliable information with smart tag, sensor and connected device technology to track more than just the location of your bag for example – perhaps its environmental conditions or border controls status. The real benefit of increasing the situational awareness and range of available information comes from the decisions that can be made as a result. The rationale for deploying more sophisticated real-time decision making tools is threefold: enabling great choice and flexibility for customers, driving optimum process efficiency and triggering compliance, security or other checks on the basis of need rather than a default
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Taking all these concepts what do we envisage the journey will be? On our website you can explore the step by step journey for four key elements that move through the airport today – passengers, their baggage, cargo and the turnaround of an aircraft. Its worth appreciating that this is not a static white paper or report nor some science fiction - we shall be updating the content and our approach as needed. We are working closely with the airports that are already leading initiatives and running trials proving the concepts identified in NEXTT. As we see the progress and success of their trials, understand the business decisions they make and as other technologies become available, we shall adjust our visions. These ideas and the customer experience will continue to evolve, reflecting and enhancing the way of our daily lives.
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So recap and perhaps use a different way of looking that this… We do not think the current concept of airport design and build will be able to best serve the future expectations of our passenger and cargo customers. And we are concerned that the currently pace of build will only lead to more slot constrained airports. We will be in risk of not being able to cater for the growth projected for passenger and cargo markets. There are many initiatives underway, including ones led by IATA, however, in today‘s world these initiatives may be implemented in certain counties or airports but their use would most probably remain siloed and/or fragmented.
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The NEXTT program looks at ways in how these indicatives can best link together to maximize the value and experience to passenger and cargo customers. All to make sure we can make the best use of technology developments and advanced processes. In various cases we find the links are not easy for the optimum experience and revisions need to be made or new concepts are needed to fill identified gaps And the proof of concept of these integrations, the interlinks and gaps, is what we are trailing with the partner airports. This will then be used to push for development of necessary standards or regulatory approvals.
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And of course, the key enabler to make this all happen is the data piece …
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This is where we are really going to be able to make the greatest strides… The ability to migrate towards a common data platform or data backbone, using distributed ledgers technologies, predictive modelling, AI and Open Application Processing Interfaces, will radically facilitate the implementation of NEXTT Pulling everything together in a data highway which can be accessed by authorized parties to link systems, provide situational awareness and make real-time decisions to ensure service quality and efficiency is what will change tomorrow journey.
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