Airports are magnets for innovation of every kind. Over the past decade we’ve seen facial recognition technology and self-serve check-in introduced. Then came the ‘sonic scarecrow’ – a solution which shoos birds away from planes by blanketing the area around the runway with a noise that makes it hard for them to communicate.
Today, as airports look to fly into the future, it’s not scarecrows that are preoccupying them but silos – information silos.
In the complex airport environment a vast range and depth of information is available – everything from safety to operational and commercial information. But instead of being neatly integrated and readily available it is often held in isolated silos and different systems, hard to lay hands on, and, in some cases, not frequently updated.
This not only hinders decision making, it wastes time, drives up costs and makes for inefficient operations.
Mastering data
Multiple exciting technologies are available today to help airports use their data effectively – digital twins and AI are just a couple of examples.
But before any airport can develop its digital strategy it must first build solid foundations with the establishment of a master data management (MDM) strategy.
MDM ensures the uniformity, accuracy, stewardship, semantic consistency and accountability of an enterprise’s master data. It involves de-duplicating, reconciling and enriching the data to create a consistent, reliable and authoritative source of truth.
With this foundation in place, airport teams can look to the technologies – like digital twins – that will help them to truly ‘know’ their assets, reduce the cost of managing them, reduce the risk associated with them and move forward with meeting their sustainability goals.
Sydney Airport: A success story
Sydney airport set out some time ago its ambition to develop a fully-fledged, real-time digital twin. Its first step on this journey was getting a grip on its data. The team, winner of a 2022 Bentley Year in Infrastructure Going Digital award, explained its frustrations at that time.
“The data is complex and scattered across different business units and stored in respective databases and systems,” said Kim Cohen, team leader of the Sydney airport project. “While users may be looking at the same asset, the data pertaining to the asset will be contained in different data silos making it difficult for users to see information specific to their needs.”
She explained how maintenance engineers relied on a digital print room – essentially a web server containing more than 20,000 static PDFs of plans and site drawings. Relevant plans and documents had to be found, printed, and collated for each job.
And, to meet corporate and regulatory requirements, the airport’s design team had to update documents every month, with their time being consumed with generating dozens of complex maps and facility drawings.
The team worked with us and Bentley Systems to integrate its vast volume of financial and asset data and metadata, models and documents from multiple systems.
It created a reliable and current picture of its existing infrastructure. This informs project planning and enables the team to readily find relevant information and understand how development projects could impact areas of the airport, as well as services.
At that time there were already 200 users of the initiative known as Maps@Syd and Cohen suggested that if these users were to access the platform just once a day, they would save 5,280 hours per year.
”If these users were to access the platform just once a day, they would save 5,280 hours per year.."
Aviation in Amsterdam
Next month, I’ll be presenting on the ‘digital airport’ concept at the International Airport Summit in Amsterdam. My Bentley Systems colleague, Hakan Engman and I aim to help airports teams map out their digital journeys with our talk, “Data management and the route to creating a digital airport.”
We’ll cover:
- The role of connected data & AI in transforming airport asset management
- How to keep data up to date in the ever-changing airport environment
- How digital twins are supporting reliable assets & an enhanced airport experience for travellers.
If you’re interested in coming along, you can find more details, here.
We’re certain that the digital airport is an idea that will take off..
Blog author: David Elliott has more than 35 years of experience in integrating technology into organizations, including major airports, to support their commercial goals.
Prior to joining Cohesive, he spent 18 years working for Heathrow as a digital programme delivery lead. He supported Europe’s largest airport with major programmes for both baggage and airport operations and was accountable for a budget of approximately £30 million per annum.
For more information on how Cohesive supports asset owner operators with digital transformation and the change programmes which are such a vital part of them, please contact us here.
