Summary of the latest Airport IT Trends Survey (2011)

1. The Airport IT
Trends Survey
2011
Executive summary
2011 A joint ACI, Airline Business
and SITA survey

2. Foreword
This year marks the eighth annual Airport IT Trends Survey, delivered in partnership by
Airline Business, the Airports Council International and SITA, tracking key technology
trends.
The survey covers airports representing around 43% of total passenger traffic and
includes more than two-thirds of the top 100 airports by revenue. The continued strong
response illustrates the value of the survey’s global benchmarking to the industry.
Alongside the traffic recovery seen in 2010 airports increased their IT&T spend as a
percentage of overall revenues. And while the pace of the economic recovery remains
uncertain, airports still expect their IT spend to increase in 2012.
The survey shows top investment priorities focus around improving customer service,
with passenger self service remaining a key part of airports’ investment strategy. In line
with this strategy, airports continue to invest in mobile services for their passengers.
Similarly, social media integration to support customer service also remains important to
airports.
Other priority investment areas include improving airport operational efficiencies, notably
through real-time resource management and passenger flow monitoring systems. Many
airports also plan to invest significantly in IT infrastructure upgrades to leverage these
new technologies.
This booklet provides a breakdown of some of the headline findings from this year’s
survey and we would like to thank all of those airports and airport operators for taking
the time to complete the survey and for your continued support of this key benchmarking
survey.
To purchase the full survey, go to flightglobalshop.com. You can also keep up to date
with all of our IT&T industry coverage online at flightglobal.com/ITzone.
Max Kingsley-Jones Angela Gittens Francesco Violante
Editor Director General Chief Executive Officer
Airline Business ACI SITA
2 | The Airport IT Trends Survey | 2011

3. Purchase the full analysis at
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Management & Strategic Issues
❯❯
81%
of airports expect the
Despite sustained economical pressures, airports are taking
a long-term view in terms of investments in IT and Telecom
(IT&T). They are increasing their spend in readiness for future
IT&T spend to demand. The survey shows that the airport’s average full year
increase or of stay IT&T spend in 2010 has remained buoyant at 4.4% of revenue.
the same in 2012 IT&T spend in absolute terms is expected to rise further in
2012. Reflecting a continued positive outlook for next year, 49%
of survey respondents expecting their spend to increase, while
32% expect the budgets to stay the same in 2012.
Total IT&T spend as % of Outlook for 2012
revenue
6%
19%
49%
4.4%
4%
32%
2%
Increase
Decrease
Stay the same
0%
2007 2008 2009 2010
Base: Those respondents answering - unweighted
2011 | The Airport IT Trends Survey | 3

4. 74%
Respondents this year have ranked “improving customer
service” as the No 1 driver for new technology investments.
Reducing cost of business operations was ranked lower this
of airports plan to
invest in refreshing
year but remains a high priority for most airports (46%).
their IT Improving airport safety and security also remains a top
infrastructure by investment.
2014 Airports are moving forward with investments projects, often
starting with pilots or R&D programs, rather than major
investments. Mobile services investments for passengers and
staff continue to top the airport investment priority list.
The survey also suggests that almost 6 out of 10 airports are
planning major investments to upgrade their existing IT
infrastructure.
Top IT investment drivers IT&T investment programmes
in the next 3 years
Top priority Major programme R&D/pilot No plans
Providing mobile (data-capable)
Improving 35% 49% 15%
device based services for staff
customer 63%
service
Offering mobile device 28% 52% 20%
based services for passengers
Refresh of IT infrastructure
59% 15% 26%
Improving (LAN, WAN, CAN)
airport safety 53%
and security Integrating electronic documents
(e.g. boarding passes, bag tags) 23% 47% 29%
Integration of social networking
Reducing 22% 44% 34%
functionality for passenger service
the cost
46%
of business IATA Passenger fast
operations 23% 41% 36%
travel (end-to-end self service)
4 | The Airport IT Trends Survey | 2011

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Passenger Operations
❯❯
78%
of airports plan to
Passenger self-service continues to grow and is still
expanding. Adoption of check-in kiosks has already reached very
high global penetration. Despite the high levels of adoption, the
increase the number vast majority of airports (53%) are still planning to increase the
of kiosks they deploy number of check-in kiosks, while others plan to introduce more
(for any usage) kiosks for alternative usage (25%) such as self-scanning of
documents and flight transfer.
Airports also plan to extend the self-service concept to other
passenger touchpoints to help improve performance and speed
of passenger handling throughout the airport. The adoption of
e-gates is still in its infancy, with current implementation under
10%. However, airports continue to show interest in introducing
e-gates by 2014 to reduce queues and speed up passenger
processing, with the largest airports leading the e-gate adoption.
Common bag-drop locations also beginning to feature on the
airport self-service wish list. Over the next three years, 47% of
airports plan to implement common bag-drop locations.
Strategy for kiosks Self-service investments
3%
9%
Already done By 2014 No plans
13%
53%
Kiosk for self-scanning
44% 26% 31%
of documents
25%
Kiosk for flight transfer 24% 28% 48%
Increase total number of
common use check-in kiosks
e-gates for check points 9% 33% 59%
Increase total number of common use kiosks for other
usage (e.g. transfer, bag claim, info services, etc.)
We do not have common use kiosks and do not e-gates for self-boarding 35% 62%
plan to imprement common use
Keep total number of common use
check-in kiosks the same common bag-drop
locations
47% 48%
Keep total number of common
use kiosks, but change their usage
2011 | The Airport IT Trends Survey | 5
Reduce the number of kiosks 1%

6. 60%
Services on mobile devices and via Social Networks are set to
support the airport’s customer service vision.
Airport provision of services to passengers’ mobile phones
of airports want to
target passengers
are especially focused on easing and augmenting their journey
with retail through the airport environment. Notification of flight status and
promotions delays on passenger mobile phones remains at the top of the
airports mobile investments. Utilising mobile phones to direct
passengers around the airport is beginning to attract airport
investments with 44% of respondents planning for such
services by 2014. Airports also have a strong desire to offer
retail services through the passenger’s mobile phone (60% with
plans by 2014).
Although the provision of services to passengers via Social
Networks remains experimental for many respondents, the
majority of airports are open to using Social Networks to provide
enhanced passenger services. Most airports expect Social
Networks to make a contribution as an additional
communication channel.
Investments in mobile Reason for using
services for passengers social networks
Already done By 2014 No plans Already done By 2014 No plans
Notification Customer
about flight 48% 33% 18% relationship handling 37% 35% 28%
status/delays e.g. complaints
Target Flight information
passengers with 10% 60% 30% and operational 36% 37% 27%
retail promotions updates
Navigation to Disruption and
gates/points 44% 51% emergency 26% 40% 34%
of interest updates
6 | The Airport IT Trends Survey | 2011

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Airport Operations
❯❯
76%
of airports have or
Improving airport efficiency depends on the availability and
intelligent use of information to optimise processes and make
timely decisions. This requires systems and stakeholders to share
will have systems information in real-time. The survey shows that 28% of airports
for better real-time have already invested in business intelligence solutions for
resource visibility real-time visibility and planning of resources, while another 48%
and planning by plan to invest by 2014.
2014
Real-time visibility of resources and assets at airports depends
on the availability of data from across the airport. The respondents
of this survey suggest that the two biggest challenges for improving
business and operational intelligence is the current lack of data
availability, and cite poor integration between disparate systems or
the resistance of airport stakeholders to share data as the main
barriers for adoption.
Investments in business Challenges for the introduction of
intelligence systems real-time resource visibility and
planning
Major barrier Rank 1 Rank 2
25%
28%
Lack of
integration amongst 20% 36%
disparate system No plans
By end of 2014
Lack of cooperation Already done
48% to share data 25% 25%
amongst stakeholders
Already done
By 2014 Lack of automated
platform and 18% 16%
No plans data warehouse
2011 | The Airport IT Trends Survey | 7

8. 71%
Airports are beginning to utilise passenger flow monitoring
technology to optimise their resource utilization, enhance
planning capabilities, and ultimately improve the passenger
of airports plan to
invest IT solutions
experience. 22% of this year’s respondents currently monitor
to monitor passengers’ progress across the airports, but 49% have plans
passenger flow e.g. to do so by the end of 2014.
check-in wait times Reducing congestion is the primary motivation for adopting
by 2014 passenger flow monitoring solutions cited by 59% as the most
important reason. Better resource planning through the
utilisation and integration of passenger flow data is the most
important reason for 43% of the respondents.
Airports predominately use 2D bar-coded boarding passes to
monitor the passenger flow today (69%), but various other
technologies are being considered. Among the most popular
technology choices are Bluetooth, Wifi or video analytics.
Investments in passenger Reasons for implementing
flow monitoring solution passenger flow monitoring
Top priority
30% 22%
Reduce congestions
to improve 59%
No plans
passenger experience
By end of 2014
Already done
Integrate information with
49% other systems to improve 43%
airport staff and
resource planning
Already done
Reduce congestion
By 2014
to increase
non-aeronautical 34%
No plans
revenue opportunities
8 |Base:Airportrespondents answering - unweighted
The Those IT Trends Survey | 2011

9. Purchase the full analysis at
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IT Infrastructure
91%
of airports have or
Investments in Virtualisation are gathering pace. The survey
confirms that airports are accepting the benefits of Virtualisation &
cloud computing for their organization, as 9 out of 10 airports have
plan to have already implemented or are planning to implement Infrastructure-
infrastructure as-a-Service by 2014.
virtualisation/ The focus is to introduce virtualisation technology where it can
services bring cost benefits, with 6 out of 10 airports suggesting cost
implemented by
savings as the main reason for adoption.
2014
Virtualisation & cloud Top reasons for choosing
computing strategy virtualisation and cloud
Under evaluation Already done
By 2014 No plans
Generating 60%
cost savings
Infrastructure as a
service/server and 16% 57% 18% 9%
storage virtualisation
Generating greater
efficiencies/
improvements in 48%
Software as a
airport business
service/application 22% 31% 27% 21% processes
virtualisation
Increasing
implementation
Desktop as a network 44%
speed of
service/desktop 25% 19% 27% 29% new applications
virtualisation
2011 | The Airport IT Trends Survey | 9

10. Verbatim Responses
The statements below have been selected as they reflect issues or projects frequently
mentioned by all respondents in this year’s survey. Please note that these statements are
directly taken from the survey responses and reflect the opinions/wording of our respondents.
Major IT successes of the last 12 months
l irport collaborative decision making; e-gates
A
l xpansion of business intelligence offering and beginning to adopt passenger customer
E
relationship management
l eployment of free public WiFi, WiFi at the gates, in-bound bag tag scanning
D
l ew enterprise resource planning system, disaster recovery concepts and network security
N
Major IT challenges over the last 12 months
l nterprise resource planning implementation
E
l Improve productivity and efficiency versus cost reduction
l igration to cloud e-mail; building support for common-use implementation; working with
M
reduced budget
l Sales transactions at kiosks and bag tag print at kiosks
Future challenges in the airport IT environment
l he use of new technology such as cloud, social network and mobile service
T
l ireless local area network roaming and connectivity on tarmac/outdoors, working stable
W
and with enough performance together with applications and mobile equipment
l he centralised airport operational control centre implementation with collaborative decision
T
making and business intelligence functions in co-operation with airlines and tenants
l assenger tracking, we are still looking to adopt a robust passenger tracking system within
P
the next 12-18 months
Technologies making the most impact on airport environments in the near future
l assenger self-service processing and location-based (geographic information system)
P
enterprise information systems
l nterprise resource planning – reduces multiple databases and conflicting data; streamlines
E
approval processes; and improves data integrity via stronger validation
l obile devices, remote/self-service check-in
M
l ocial media and collaboration – business applications and social technologies and their
S
intersecting. Those who do so first will gain a competitive advantage in at least the short
term
10 | The Airport IT Trends Survey | 2011

11. Purchase the full analysis at
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Methodology Further Analysis
The survey objectives are to monitor key IT trends within the airport industry including:
l Management Strategic Issues
l Passenger Operations Processing
l Airport Operations Security
l Successes Challenges
The survey was first launched in 2004 and comparisons are made where appropriate
with previous surveys, although the sample may vary between years. Research is
focused on senior IT executives at the top 200 airport operators, with the aim of
polling around a quarter of this group.
A comprehensive 100+ page PDF report is available to purchase, this will include
commentary analysis covering all of the following survey questions:
l Priorities for investment decisions
l Key technology investment trends in the next 3 years
l Long-term strategy for implementing of virtualisation technology
l Evolution of self-service technology (including e-gates)
l Strategy for mobile-based services for passengers
l Plans for passenger processing
l Plans for 2D Barcode Boarding Passes
For further details:
www.flightglobalshop.com
www.sita.aero/surveys
2011 | The Airport IT Trends Survey | 11

12. www.sita.aero
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www.aci.aero