Airport Digitalization Efforts Can Take Off Using Facility Data

Facility system and device data have the potential to transform airport operations, enabling faster responses to issues, improved energy usage and better travel experiences. Realizing this potential, however, remains a challenge. The obstacle isn’t data – it’s the difficulty of bringing together and making sense of data from different sources.

Airports run on dozens of disparate systems that don’t talk to each other. They produce data in different formats and are owned by a mix of stakeholders. This makes it difficult to use data outside of the silo it’s produced in and ultimately hinders visibility and decision-making.

To break free from these limitations, airports need to unify their data and their stakeholders to realize the true promise of digitalization in creating more connected, intelligent and efficient airport operations.

Smart versus intelligent operations

Many airports already use smart systems, ranging from building automation systems to smart escalators. An intelligent airport integrates these systems so their data can be aggregated, normalized and made actionable. This creates the foundation required for truly transformative airport digitalization.

Even something as straightforward as a smart escalator sharing data with other airport systems can create exciting new possibilities.

Smart escalator usage at airports helps identify passenger falls through vibration detection to stop escalator operations and prevent serious injuries. Meanwhile, airport staff could be automatically dispatched to the scene, and the airport operations center team could immediately be alerted to the situation. That team could then quickly assess the scene via smart surveillance cameras to determine if medical or other staff need to be dispatched.

The end result of all this? A more rapid, coordinated and automated response than the typical process of relying on staff to identify, investigate and react to the situation through a series of manual steps.

And this is only scratching the surface. When disparate systems start sharing data with each other, they create new insights and new opportunities to improve airport operations. From optimizing HVAC systems for both performance and energy usage, to coordinating the cleaning of gate areas and nearby bathrooms based on real-time arrival and departure data, airports that unify their data can run more efficiently and create a smoother, more comfortable journey for customers.

Collaboration is crucial

While unifying siloed data is a well-known challenge of digital transformation, it’s just as important that something else comes together: people.

Bringing together stakeholders to collaborate on digital transformation is more complicated in airports than most other facilities or campuses. Airports can be run by one of several entities, such as a city, airline consortia or airport commission. And within one airport, the dozens of systems that exist can be controlled or owned by multiple different entities.

The most important collaboration that needs to happen is between two groups: Facilities Management and IT. These groups bring together operating knowledge about airport facility systems and how they run with technical expertise in the underlying infrastructure, data bandwidth needs and cybersecurity.

Together, these two groups, possibly with the support of a supply chain partner experienced in planning and deploying smart facilities projects, can identify viable digital transformation use cases for an airport. They can also determine how an airport’s campus master plan can support these cases with future infrastructure upgrades and where additional investments may be needed.

Generally, if these two groups can come together and show how these efforts can create better outcomes for an airport, other stakeholders will follow.

Turning disparate data into intelligence

A critical decision in this journey is deciding how to bring data from dozens of systems together so it can be aggregated, analyzed and acted upon.

Some intelligence solutions are proprietary or otherwise limited in how they manage data. For example, they may only be able to aggregate and analyze data from specific vendors’ technologies or only use certain communications protocols. This leaves airports back where they started – dealing with siloed data.

A central intelligence management platform that is based on open communication protocols can help airports avoid this problem. This type of platform can integrate with systems no matter who made them or what communications protocol they use. Preprogrammed API connections can also ease interoperability with building systems, IoT devices and software. And ready-to-use dashboards can further reduce upfront work.

Once deployed, these platforms can collect and analyze data from different building systems or devices and then deliver it as operational intelligence for operation center personnel. They can also use capabilities like AI-driven analytics, automation and smart alerts to maximize efficiency and reduce manual monitoring and intervention.

Common use cases

A common application that airports start with is utilities monitoring and management. Using data to reduce energy usage, monitor water pressure and optimize HVAC and other systems can help airports realize significant cost savings, meet sustainability targets and maintain reliable operations.

One airport used data from its new boilers and chillers to adjust its plant operations and cut energy costs. By combining historical data about how much cooling was needed during daytime operations with anticipated energy pricing data, the facilities team decided to start lowering the temperature of the chilled water loop overnight, when electricity was cheapest. This helped the airport save $30,000 in monthly energy costs.

Sometimes, even the simplest changes can yield big savings when stakeholders collaborate and are open to new ideas. Airlines and airport operators have realized, for instance, that data from passenger boarding bridges integrated with data from PC (preconditioned) air can help monitor how quickly aircraft engines are shut down upon connection.  This allows PCA units to cool planes more efficiently than keeping planes running using costly jet fuel and help reduce the airline and the airport's carbon footprint.

Using advanced analytics and insights to maximize equipment efficiency and uptime is another key opportunity. With a capability like constant commissioning, airport teams can run a commissioning script against a piece of equipment to identify where it’s operating outside its commissioning standard. In essence, this keeps the facility in a constant commissioned state, operating within design standards, helping increase customer experience while aiding mechanics who maintain equipment to avoid unexpected downtime. Additionally, keeping equipment running within its normal operating parameters can extend its operating life and prolong investments.

Airports can also use data-based insights and connected systems to deliver better experiences for the tens or hundreds of thousands of people who pass through them every day.

Data coming from a variety of sources – surveillance cameras, smart bathrooms, smart trash cans – can help airport teams adopt an “open fresh, stay fresh” operating mentality. And by having insights into both the flow of passengers and what’s happening across airport facilities, teams can also better use digital signage for purposes ranging from bathroom wait times to rapid incident communications.

Bringing it all Together

With smart systems and their vast volumes of operational and diagnostic data, airports already have the building blocks of digital transformation. Now, they need to commit to bringing IT and facility management teams together and unifying their many disparate data sources into a single intelligence platform.

For airports that make this happen, the payoff is clear: lower costs, improved efficiencies and a better travel experience.