Description

The future of airport management will be based on the performance of individual stakeholders; all agents - from landside to terminal and airside - will be brought onto a single platform, which will result in real-time analysis to support decision making. Total airport management (TAM) supports data-driven decision making, holistic KPI management, and the integration of operations by interlinking processes and systems across the airport. TAM encompasses performance-based airport operations that enable performance-based creation, agreement, and maintenance of the Airport Operational Plan (AOP), ensuring fairness and mitigation of conflicting interests between stakeholders and guaranteeing that everyone is working efficiently toward common goals.

TAM aims to address the challenges faced by airports across process categories, including passenger processing, airside operations, safety and security, facilities management, and landside operations. It does this by integrating the data accessed by the respective stakeholders and connecting the respective systems to monitor KPIs to boost operational efficiency. TAM will also be able to provide increased resource optimization, improved situational awareness, augmented decision-making ability, quick root cause analysis, improved passenger/baggage throughput, and enhanced ability to make operational changes in real time, which will lead to augmented operational efficiency and an increase in revenue.

The upgradation activities undertaken by airports, the growing need for safety and security, the rising demand for reduced turnaround time, and airports’ desire to increase non-aero revenue and offer an enhanced passenger experience to improve revenue will bolster airports’ decisions to deploy TAM. However, stakeholders’ unwillingness to share information with one another, high deployment costs, the growing threat of cyberattacks, and the presence of existing systems such as A-CDM act as market growth restraints.

TAM is a novel concept; as of June 2020, only a few airports across the world had implemented TAM systems (Brussels and Heathrow, for example); similarly, only a few suppliers offer TAM solutions, including SITA, Honeywell, and ADB Safegate. Technologies such as biometrics, AI, RFID/NFC, blockchain, robotics, IoT, 5G, and predictive analytics will propel TAM deployment at airports.

TAM will be especially attractive to Tier I airports at large metros and international hub airports as these airports handle extremely high passenger numbers. In addition, these airports manage a large number of airlines and other stakeholders. Given these airports' expansive areas and coverage, their high passenger/baggage throughput, and their growing focus on the provision of the highest levels of passenger experience, they are likely to see significant deployment of TAM solutions.

In conclusion, TAM is in the nascent stage of growth, and airports and suppliers will focus on improving and customizing the system to match the requirements of all the stakeholders in the ecosystem. Suppliers and airports need to work closely with one another to leverage all the benefits TAM offers and realize the full potential of this next-gen technology.

Author: Shantanu Gangakhedkar