Building for a tech-enabled future

New technology will change the way airports are designed and built, writes Amadeus’  Holger Mattig.

Airports are fascinating, complex organisms, designed to accommodate a multitude of needs and challenges. Each is unique, shaped by the pressures around it.

Whether beginning afresh within a new greenfield location, or rethinking an existing facility, we must consider capacity – how many passengers and flights can we expect to welcome each year?

Of course, budget plays a significant role, limiting or freeing our imagination accordingly. Local culture is a perhaps underappreciated element of the airport design process; we must ask ourselves what we can do to ensure local sensibilities are respected and expectations met.

Also, key is the concept for the airport – will this be an international location or focused on domestic markets? The centre of a hub-and-spoke model, or a node on a point-to-point network?

This influences what kind of aircraft an airport can expect – a location welcoming an influx of wide-body aircraft will need a very different gate configuration and turnaround capabilities to one focused on the much smaller narrow-body planes.

Airspace, safety, and operational integration must be considered, alongside ground transport and connectivity to ensure passengers can reach the airport.

Equally, the wider community, environmental and economic impacts should remain front of mind. Much to consider, then.

But, while many of these considerations are established and immutable, a host of trends, drawing on new technology, changing passenger expectations and a more general rethinking of the airport experience, are shaping how we design airports.

Here we explore some of these major themes and find that decisions taken today can have impacts that last decades.

HOW NEW TECHNOLOGY IS RESHAPING AIRPORT DESIGN

Baggage is one area where change is coming fast. Rising passenger numbers are driving airports to rethink baggage handling, with automation, robotics, and data intelligence improving capacity, efficiency, and resilience.

Smart technologies can reduce manual handling, detect potential equipment failures earlier, and streamline screening and loading processes.

Autonomous vehicles could take this a step further, with small robotic units collecting bags directly from passengers and transporting them into the baggage system – potentially reducing the need for fixed bag-drop infrastructure and freeing up valuable terminal space.

Off-site check-in could also see less baggage entering the airport in the first place.

With door-to-door baggage services increasingly positioned as a value-added option by airlines, some bags may bypass the airport entirely, potentially further reducing the footprint required for handling equipment.

Outside the airport front door, a push towards public transport could also reshape the physical footprint of airports, reducing the need for parking and space dedicated to private vehicles.

Rising ‘kiss and fly’ charges are one example of this trend in action, with pricing increasingly used to discourage drop-offs and encourage rail and other public transport options.

This raises a broader design question. If fewer passengers arrive by car, how much space do we really need for roads, parking, and vehicle access – and what could replace it?

In what will be welcome news for many passengers, new CT security scanners are making the process more seamless, allowing increasing numbers to leave liquids and electronics inside their bags rather than removing them for screening.

This technology is already improving throughput and cutting queue times, with a larger equipment footprint offset by reductions in the space required for passengers to wait.

Finally, trusted traveller programmes complement this shift by using pre-vetted passenger data to enable faster, lower-friction security and border processing, reducing queues and pressure on terminal infrastructure.

When questioned by IATA, 89% of passengers expressed an interest in such schemes.

WHERE DOES THE SHIFT TO DELIVERY MANAGEMENT FIT?

The trend, then, is undoubtedly toward doing more with less. Smaller departure halls require less investment, and by taking advantage of some of the changes outlined, can build better experiences for passengers.

Modern delivery management systems can accelerate the process, helping remove the fixed points departure halls are built around today.

Check-in desks become less necessary once airlines confirm the intention to fly through app location data and bag-drop alone, and the boarding pass is replaced by dynamic information sent to a mobile device.

Document checks that become digital can move earlier into the journey, rather than happening at a counter. The result is fewer desks and less dedicated processing equipment, with agents instead able to roam the terminal on tablets, connected directly to the delivery system rather than through shared hardware like CUPPS.

Terminal space once given over to processing can then be reallocated to retail and leisure.

HOW DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION CAN REDUCE THE AIRPORT FOOTPRINT

Self-service transformation is also changing the amount and type of physical infrastructure airports need.

Smaller, lighter self-service equipment can reduce the footprint of check-in and bag drop, for example, while more efficient digital displays and wayfinding systems can make better use of terminal space and reduce the need for large, fixed signage.

The balance between staffed and self-service processing is particularly important. Common-use technology means airlines can share counters and gates, reducing the amount of dedicated infrastructure required.

As more passengers arrive ‘travel ready’ – having completed check-in and other processes before reaching the airport – the need for traditional check-in desks could fall further.

Biometrics will have an equally significant impact. By enabling passengers to move through identity and border processes with fewer physical checkpoints, biometric journeys can change the shape and flow of a terminal.

Cloud technology is also reducing the physical footprint behind the scenes. A virtual airport operations centre (vAPOC) can replace large rooms filled with fixed consoles and video walls, freeing valuable space while reducing associated power and cooling requirements.

Greater flexibility can extend to the gate. Designing gates to handle both international and domestic passengers – including Schengen and non-Schengen flows where relevant – can increase utilisation and reduce the total number of gates required.

The result is an airport that can do more with less physical infrastructure – just as we have seen in our project with Manchester airport.

Tomorrow, the smartest airport may not be the one with the most infrastructure, but the one that needs the least.

About the author

Holger Mattig is senior vice president for product management at Amadeus Airports & Borders.