March 20, 2006
Manchester Airports Group Showcases the Airport of the Future
[20 MARCH 2006 - LEEDS, UK] Manchester Airports Group (MAG) has been working with Mantic Point Solutions to bring to life its vision of the Airport of the Future. Through a series of road-shows held at Manchester, Nottingham East Midlands, and Bournemouth airports, staff at all levels of the organisation from the group board down have been able to experience and contribute towards this innovative project.
The Airport of the Future aims to better understand customer’s needs and behaviours to create a stress free travel experience from the moment passengers leave home until they reach their departure gate. This includes minimising queues at outbound control through knowledge of the future loading, providing active terminal navigation and way-finding facilities to help people find their gate more easily, and allowing passengers to opt-in to receive the best offers in airport retail and leisure activities.
To realise their vision, MAG called on Mantic Point and utilised many aspects of their StreamThru service. StreamThru is an opt-in, virtual concierge service for air travellers, designed to keep passengers informed with information about their flight, and provide them with relevant offers for retail and other airport services.
StreamThru maintains a high-level view of a passenger’s location (e.g. off airport, landside, outbound control, airside, departure gate) using simple mobile phone based technology off-airport and either barcode or low-cost RFID boarding passes in the terminal building. At the transition point between each phase in the departure process (e.g. landside to outbound control) mobile, barcode, or RFID technology is used to record the passenger’s progress.
The Airport of the Future initiative has been masterminded by Yemmi Agbebi, Head of Group Business Development. Yemmi explained: “Air travel has changed dramatically over the past few years with the growth of low-cost carriers, increased security requirements, and the move towards kiosk and home based check-in. To cope with these changes, airports need to adapt their business model and working practices to ensure they continue to deliver the services that customers want. At Manchester Airports Group we’re taking a lead in this area, because we want to re-define the 21st century airport travel experience for the benefit of all our customers.”
Yemmi continued: “I have been working with colleagues to develop and refine our vision of the Airport of the Future for over 3 years. The recent road-shows are the culmination of this work, allowing us to share our thoughts and ideas with people across the business. And, by working with Mantic Point, for the first time we’ve been able to bring together the various elements of the Airport of the Future and present them as a single, integrated package.”
The next step for MAG is to evaluate whether to pilot some of the Airport of the Future concepts so they can determine customer reaction, which would be essential prior to any wider deployment.
Notes to the editor:
- Mantic Point Solutions Limited is a UK-based software company focused on the delivery of real-time flow management and business intelligence applications.
- Manchester Airports Group Plc (MAG) is the second largest airport operator in the UK and comprises the airports of Manchester, Nottingham East Midlands, Bournemouth and Humberside.
[ENDS]
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