1. The aviation industry has experienced
soaring passenger traffic in the last few
decades and airport operators and industry
bodies have developed dramatically in order
to accommodate the growing volume.
The airport environment is loaded with
complexities that have to be dealt with on a
daily basis. Managing all these complexities
is a serious challenge, in terms of safety and
security, human resources, physical assets and
real estate considerations among many other
issues, as there is no room for delays or errors,
as illustrated in a recent SITA paper2
.
‘Smart Airports’
A recent study conducted at the IT University
of Copenhagen has focused on the ‘Smart
Airport’ concept; seeing that the eco-system
comprises enormous amounts of technicality
and know-how that are heavily interconnected.
The entire aviation industry is entering a new
era of digitisation, forcing practitioners to
change traditional working methods into
modern practices. In accordance with
numerous articles the study was mainly
conceived from three angles. First was from
a technology perspective, supported by
common use/shared services collaboration
within the airport domain. Secondly, it looked
at the challenge from a business perspective,
in terms of increasing revenues by optimising
customer services, continued business model
development, and substantial operational
cost savings, hence more budget space for
fuelling innovation projects. Lastly, from a
traveller’s point of view, it looked at providing
necessary information throughout the end
to end passenger journey, with the intention
of achieving a convenient and seamless
travel experience.
The term ‘Smart Airport’ is applied by
numerous noticeable vendors that have been
and still are operating in this field for some
time, and has been described differently from
one vendor to another. However, an academic
definition is yet to be established. For this
reason I took up the challenge by defining the
concept from an academic perspective as:
PASSENGER PROCESSING
8 Volume 19 · Issue 2 · 2015 www.internationalairportreview.com
In research based upon field study and interviews undertaken at airports in
Europe and the Middle East
1
, Sabrina Abdullah, Lecturer at IT University of
Copenhagen proposes new ways of managing and operating modern airports
to enhance IT governance, knowledge creation and the passenger experience.
©Rawpixel/Shutterstock.com
How holistic management
improves the seamless
travel experience
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2. ‘The concept is simply about attempting to
balance creativity with analytics in today’s
data driven world, and how a corporation as
large as the airport industry, is going about
getting deeper collaboration across its
businesses to deliver an enhanced customer
experience and greater value.’
The study was focused on how to adapt novel
thinking in terms of conceiving and integrating
‘business’ and ‘technology’ as one entity and not
separate aspects of airport operations. In order
to be able to detect and manage the addressed
issues, an academic matrix was selected.
The matrix has been developed by Ross & Weil
from MIT Sloan Management3
. It is a recognised
framework among academics and to
a much lesser degree among today’s practitioners, and is named
‘IT Governance on One Page’ (Figure 1).
The matrix consists of five key IT governance decisions and several
governance archetypes. Depending on the input of the managers,
the matrix will display either a centralised, hybrid or decentralised
governance structure. This simple framework can be utilised as a
valuable exercise for organisations, seeing that it optimises IT
governance (ITG) in practice and enhances the communication within
the corporation about ITG. However, to obtain efficiency by this tool it is
important to identify where (archetypes) and by whom (decision domain)
various IT related decisions are taken within the organisation.
Moreover, the outcome would be measured towards the
organisation’s business strategy and reveal if the present ITG is the
most appropriate. As an analogy, one can argue that ITG in a company
resembles the cockpit in an aircraft, the senior managers and executives
are the pilots on board and employees are the travellers. From this place
everything is controlled, decided, navigated and communicated.
The importance of IT governance
Subsequently, one can question why ITG is significant for seamless travel
and passenger experience now more than ever? Well, from a traveller’s
perspective one couldn’t care less on what platform systems operate on,
where, how and by whom. Passengers’ utmost priority is that they are
updated with all relevant changes related to their journey and as a result,
evade stress and make it on time for their flight. One could also argue
that the evolution of technology and trends have urged several industries
to rethink their practices, seeing that technology has been recognised as
a game changer for several industries, including aviation2
.
To avoid disappointed and unhappy travellers, airport management
has to make sure that decision rights and overall processes are shared
and assigned to the right staff. A well designed decision making structure
along with process alignment must also be formally communicated.
This will facilitate seamless processes that will influence travellers in a
positive way. In order to obtain good practices for coming ITG,
management requires profound insights of daily activities and know-how
prior to any recommendation for any ‘ideal’ ITG for aviation use.
Airports are distinct entities that are measured on performance and
profit, this means they are not very different from traditional companies
– chief executives, board members and shareholders closely monitor
revenue and capacity growth as well as operational costs. The study
engaged roughly 10 airport operators (main hubs) in order to understand
the challenges aviation encounters on a daily basis, with the aim of
PASSENGER PROCESSING
www.internationalairportreview.com Volume 19 · Issue 2 · 2015 9
Figure 1: IT governance matrix, adapted from ‘IT Governance on One Page’3
© 2004 MIT Sloan Center for Information Systems Research
Managersmustacceptandunderstandthat‘business
asusual’isnotapplicableanylonger,seeingthatthe
marketsurroundingus,ischangingwithhighspeed
iar215 Abdullah_Layout 1 18/03/2015 12:03 Page 2

3. getting closer to shape and capture the ideal
ITG structure. The participating airports were
very diverse in their conditions, meaning that
some were in transition to ‘Smart Airport’
status and others were ‘done’ implementing
the components of concept.
The results of the survey did indeed
disclose evident diversity between the ones that
have implemented the concept, and the ones
that are going through the process. The
outcome revealed to a certain degree two
distinct patterns. Firstly, airports that have not
yet implemented ‘Smart Airport’ components
or are in transition, have a very centralised
decision making layout (decisions taken by top
management) and decentralised
IT architecture (multiple platforms and
infrastructures), marked as red crosses on
Figure 1 (page 9). Whereas, airports embracing
the ‘Smart Airport’ ideology have in most cases
decentralised decision making structures
(decision taken locally) and centralised IT
architecture (shared platform/common use),
marked as green crosses.
It is worth mentioning that the concept
advocates for ‘one version of the truth’,
user-friendliness, operational excellence
and proactivity in terms of introducing new
business models to meet future demands.
Additionally, some of the contributors did
experience cost reduction in relation to
operation and maintenance budgets, due to
shared expenses by all involved stakeholders.
Hence, revenue will eventually be recorded in
the long-term, as more focus is navigated
towards business and innovation rather than
on operations and maintenance.
Individual requirements
However, it is hard to suggest an ideal ITG for
‘Smart Airports’. Scholars’ advice is to learn
from the efforts of others. Scholars also
suggest that effectiveness is obtained through
organisational structure and strategic
objectives. The ‘Smart Airport’ concept is in the
preliminary phase and there is much to learn
prior to any qualified judgment on an ideal
design. Suppose managers follow scholars’
advice in order to approach the ideal ITG.
One way of execution is through knowledge
creation. Eminent Japanese professors
Ikujiro Nonaka and Hirotaka Takeuchi4
define
organisational ‘knowledge creation’ as:
“the capacity of the company as a whole to
create new knowledge, disseminate it
throughout the organisation and embody
it in its products, services and systems.”
Nonaka suggests knowledge creation
within an organisation is vital due to
market diversities, rapid development of
technologies and expansion as well as
market competition.
Additionally, Nonaka5
argues that in order
to become innovative, it is important to
become knowledgeable (fundamental asset).
However, being knowledgeable is not
sufficient in today’s market conditions
– being adaptable is equally important.
If an airport operator can orchestrate
knowledgeability and adaptability then
the company would achieve a competitive
edge in comparison with its counterparts.
ITG effectiveness and success are based
upon in-depth knowledge of the working
environment; hence one should not
undervalue the employees’ skills and
experience as their individual knowledge
can add value to the company’s knowledge
as a whole. As the saying goes: ‘experience
is the best teacher’.
I would like to conclude this article by
stating the importance of cross collaboration
management among aviation bodies aiming to
deliver a unique passenger experience.
However, to make it a reality, managers must
accept and understand that ‘business as usual’
is not applicable any longer, seeing that the
market surrounding us, is changing with high
speed – thanks to modern technology.
We must acknowledge that human resources
possess scarce value that should be unfolded
and compiled into e.g. new business models.
At the end of the day airports resemble regular
companies: they suffer from bad performance
and flourish on excellent revenues.
Finally, if you suspect your company is
embracing a vague ITG, I invite you to utilise
the matrix above and discover your current
‘look’ – try not to be too disturbed by the
results. Better safe than sorry.
PASSENGER PROCESSING
10 Volume 19 · Issue 2 · 2015 www.internationalairportreview.com
References
1. Abdullah, S (2014). Collaboration and Decision making.
Unpublished Master Thesis.
2. SITA (2014). Towards 2020 and beyond. Available from:
www.sita.aero/sectors/airports/intelligent-airport,
Accessed 20-4-2014.
3. Weil, P, Ross, JW (2004). IT Governance on One Page.
Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT Sloan Management.
4. Nonaka, I & Takeuchi, H (1995). The knowledge-creating
company. New York: Oxford University
5. Nonaka, I (1991). The Knowledge- Creating Company.
Harvard Business Review, 69(6), pp. 96-104.
SabrinaAbdullahis a Lecturer and
Assistant Lecturer at De Montfort
University and IT University of
CopenhagenwithinManagement,
Strategy and Technology. She has
more than 18 years of working
experience in the latest seamless
travel assessment and business
model innovations for TAV Holding in Turkey and
wasaspeakerattheAirportIT&TConference2014.
She has a Master of Science (E-business) from IT
University and the Copenhagen Business School,
and a Bachelor degree (Business Administration)
from De Montfort University, Leicester.
©phipatbig/Shutterstock.com
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