Dubai, May 10 -- By 2020, it might be possible for 80 per cent of the passengers travelling through the world's international airports to only have to deal with machines, and not interact with human beings at all, as they pass through fully automated check-ins and immigration counters, aviation technology experts said in Dubai.
Speaking on optimizing technology to create SMART terminals of the future, on the concluding day of the Global Airport Leaders' Forum (GALF), Mr. Francesco Violante, Chief Executive Officer, SITA , said that this would reduce congestion in airports and dependence on labour and greatly improve the overall efficiency and time saving. "Imagine this technology which will also help airport operators to geo-locate you through your phone etc, and send you specific information that would be of interest to you, enabling you to go shopping for discount deals you want, collect your boarding card as you enter the aircraft, in short absolutely eliminate all the hassle that makes air travel so stressful right now," Mr. Violante suggested. According to Mr. Hussein Dabbas, Vice President, Middle East and North Africa, IATA, such technology was now a reality thanks also to the huge investments in the airports infrastructure, which would have been difficult to imagine even a decade ago. He said: "Growth of passenger numbers has been phenomenal - by 2020 - almost 95 million passengers are expected to cross Dubai International airport and infrastructure needs to keep up. About 50 per cent people prefer using machines rather than checking-in and passing security check conventionally, according to a recent study. Most people find processes at the airports to be the most troublesome part of their journey at present, he added. The governments are realizing what aviation brings in to the GDP - in the case of the UAE alone this is 15 per cent currently. They are realizing the importance of facilitation of passengers - countries realize today that creating hub airports like in Singapore or Dubai are a great asset, fuelling infrastructure growth elsewhere. The airline industry, growing 6 to 8 per cent annually, requires countries that are forward-looking to invest heavily to keep themselves ahead of the competition and become SMART airports, Mr. Dabbas said. Jordan, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and several other countries are privatizing the airports operations, touting them as the service sectors. Mr. Thani Al Zaffin, Director General, Emaratech, said: "Dubai International Airport handled 55 million passengers in 2012, and is looking at 95 million in the year 2020. There is an expansion to Concourse 1 and 2 and Al Maktoum International is becoming operational for passengers in October this year. Everyone is now doing their part to ensure efficiency, and we hope that with the introduction of e-Gates in a big way, we will help facilitate the process even more." Mr. Dabbas sounded a note of caution about the obvious fallout of the rapid growth. "We should expect problems. There is huge congestion in the air. The planes circling over Dubai, especially going East from the UAE at peak hours, have to endure heavy congestion. Flights have to circle for 40 minutes waiting for a slot to take off. There is a need to look at the bigger picture and air traffic control has to step up," he said.
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