In 2018, some 4.3 billion passengers traveled by plane, representing an increase of 6.1% over 2017. As global air traffic continues to grow, so does the flow of passengers to manage inside the world’s airports. How can we keep air travel from becoming a brutal gauntlet? Digital technologies are making their way into terminals to help streamline the passenger experience.
With more than 220,000 passengers a day at Paris-Charles de Gaulle, 100,000 at Paris-Orly, and more than 125,000 employees at both airports, congestion is a daily risk in every terminal. Each successive checkpoint in the airport (check-in, border control, security, boarding, etc.) represents a new challenge to overcome in preventing bottlenecks and delays.
Taking a close look at passenger flows
How do we measure these flows? We formed a partnership with the innovative small business Xovis. The startup installed over 1,700 sensors throughout our airports to give operational teams and the French border police access to a vast trove of data, in compliance with applicable regulations.
Passengers are counted and anonymously tracked by stereoscopic 3D sensors located in all zones under the authority of the French border police (PAF). The airport software developed by Xovis, in use since 2017, receives the sensor data and supplies us with key performance indicators, such as wait times, processing times and passenger flow rates.
This allows us to identify congested areas and bottlenecks in real time, as well as to pinpoint the cause of a problem by reviewing data from multiple points in the process.
These sensors, tested in Terminal 3 at Paris-Charles de Gaulle, are supported by video analysis and lidar (laser remote sensing) devices being tested in the baggage delivery room in Terminal 2E and the connection tunnel leading passengers from S3 to Terminal 2G.
Objective: performance and satisfaction
The reason we are deploying these technologies is to improve our understanding and management of passenger flows, in order to optimize the scale of our resources. Our aim? Passenger satisfaction, of course!
Already, queuing and passenger flow management systems are improving the efficiency of check-in, security, immigration and baggage handling. We also have 91 boarding gates equipped with self-boarding, 224 automated baggage depots and 495 self-service check-in kiosks. We have even installed shoe scanners to spare passengers from having to remove their shoes during security checks.
What is our next step? Widespread use of facial recognition by 2024-2025. That is why we are conducting a test with Air France tied to the check-in process at terminal 2E in Charles de Gaulle. Check back in a few years for more info!