Enhancing Passenger Experiences: Leveraging Technology and Analytics in Airport Operations

In an interview with Marco Fontenelle, CIO, RIOgaleão, explores various strategies that airports can employ to improve customer experiences and highlights the transformative power of digital security technology and technological innovations in aviation.

As the chief information officer at RIOgaleão, what are some of the ways airports can improve customer experiences for passengers?

These days, more and more services are becoming focused on customer experience, and it is not different in the airport business. Although the passenger is more connected to the airline in the buying process, his experience from the moment he arrives at the airport until the moment the airplane takes-off, is mainly the airport operator’s responsibility. With all the legal/security measures that are mandatory, operators must be very creative in providing a good experience during the journey at the airport. More than providing good restaurants, stores, and services we, as airport operators, must facilitate this journey with easy ways to check-in, process baggage, pass through security and get to the gate. Recently we launched our GaleOn platform where passengers can prebook lounges, parking lots, taxi cabs, luxury experiences and other services. Also, it is possible to deliver from almost any restaurants to the airport directly to the gate selected, without the need of picking up at the restaurant. Indoor way-finding is another way to facilitate the customer journey and can provide a good tool to offer services as the passenger walks through. Adding multi-language instructions and sign translation using augmented reality is another way of helping tourists from all over the world, regardless of their native language. AI can also help predict the concentration of passengers and provide insights for a better allocation of staff.

How do you think digital security technology can help airports reduce wait times for passengers and increase workflow efficiencies?

Security is probably the critical point in the passenger experience as we have to pass through many check-points in order to guarantee the security of the flights. Many of these check-points are based on people and physical exploration. Facial recognition together with artificial intelligence and machine learning can evolve to a more assertive approach from the official authorities. Issuing credentials to the people who work at the airport is another process that involves a lot of documentation and clearance from the authorities because of the nature of the places people need access to work. These processes can also be reviewed in terms of automation and background validation.

What according to you are some of the new technological innovations in the field of aviation that can take advantage of these analytics to benefit airports?

Flight routes can be submitted to uncountable simulations using AI and ML to find the most optimized ones in terms of fuel consumption, passenger availability and many other variables that can leverage the airport negotiation with airline companies showing them the operational benefits of bringing operations to the specific airport. Some AI/ML systems attached to patio cameras can evaluate the use of resources at the gate such as fueling, baggage loading, pushback time, etc. This can be a service provided by the airport to the airlines to improve their procedures during their time at the gate. IoT devices can be introduced in almost all equipment used at the airport, anticipating malfunction on stairways and luggage conveyors, controlling flow and guaranteeing cleanliness on bathrooms, maintaining temperature and so many other facilities that can be controlled and optimized.

"Technology being more public than ever represents a huge effort to the IT team to govern it without prohibiting other teams to think digitally.”

Before your stint at RIOgaleão, what are some of your experiences that empowered you to gain deep expertise in business intelligence and leadership, certifications from ITIL, COBIT, and PMI, and other skills pertinent to aviation?

RIOgaleão is my first experience in airport operations. I used to work in the financial industry for banks and insurance companies. I also had a long experience in education before coming to RIOgaleão. In the airport industry, the security and availability of the services are mandatory for the operation, and my certifications in ITIL, COBIT and PMI have been very important as a guidance to achieve maturity in the way I manage the IT operations. However, apart from the high importance of keeping the operation safe and available we, as IT team have the responsibility to bring innovation and digital transformation that makes sense to the business. And it has been really challenging to govern the digital transformation, because nowadays it is not available just for the IT team but to every person who has a phone, a tablet or a notebook. Technology being more public than ever represents a huge effort to the IT team to govern it without prohibiting other teams to think digitally.

On an ending note, what is your advice for other senior leaders and CXOs working in the aviation sector?

Historically, Information Technology has been serving as a tool to automate and reduce costs on doing repetitive tasks. Today, IT has become more and more linked to the business even in the most traditional industries such as airports. CXOs should look to the IT department more as a business partner and facilitator than a commodity service provider. That way, companies will be able to leverage their business with more efficiency as technology is no longer distant from the clients, whether they are direct customers or other businesses in the value chain.