Isavia, the operator of Iceland’s airports, is embracing cloud computing with a major technology transformation at Keflavik, Iceland’s primary airport, in partnership with Amadeus. The move supports closer collaboration between the airport and its airline partners, including flag carrier Icelandair, that will deliver significant improvements to the passenger experience. Examples include the introduction of digital payments and a new self-service check-in and bag drop that will deliver a more flexible passenger experience.
By moving from a legacy, multi-provider IT environment to Amadeus Flow, an integrated cloud solution for all aspects of passenger processing, Isavia will retire its on-site systems and operate 100% of its passenger services from the cloud. The shift means airlines can now consider innovative options, like off-airport check-in and bag drop, with services positioned at key locations like city centers, bus stations or hotels.
All passenger service points at Keflavik airport will transition to Amadeus’ cloud solutions, including more than 130 check-in and boarding desks, as well as 50 new self-service check-in kiosks, and 25 new Auto Bag Drop Units provided by ICM Airport Technics, an Amadeus company.
As the technology partner for Keflavik and its largest airline partner, Icelandair, Amadeus plans to implement a number of upgrades that improve how both organizations collaborate on the day of operations. For example, Keflavik will adopt Amadeus’ Baggage Reconciliation Solution, which is already used by Icelandair, so both airline and airport can work from a common source of data to improve how bags are managed.
Bjarni Sigurðsson, director of IT, Isavia, says, “This major project is all about having the flexibility to collaborate more closely with our airline partners to deliver a better experience for passengers.” He continues: “Payments is a great example. We’ve wanted to meet traveler demand by rolling-out payment acceptance at check-in for some time. Now Keflavik runs on the same cloud as the majority of our airline partners which means we can help them handle payments, share data more effectively and enable them to innovate by providing services off airport too.”
Yannick Beunardeau, vice president, Airport IT and Airline Operations, EMEA, Amadeus, adds: “With the vast majority of passengers at Keflavik flying on airlines powered by Amadeus this project offers a playground for passenger experience innovation. We plan to push the technical boundaries of airline and airport collaboration with a commitment from all stakeholders to experiment, learn and deliver better journeys. Operating on common cloud solutions opens the door to a raft of new passenger services.”
The transformation is already underway with the switch to Amadeus Flow to occur in a phased approach.
