Back to Air Transport IT Review - Issue 2, September 2010

Digitizing Bengaluru International Airport

And achieving several firsts in Indian aviation

If ever a template for the design and implementation of the digital airport were to be drawn up, then Bengaluru International Airport (BIAL) would certainly be a prime contender. *Francis Rajan, Head of ICT at BIAL explains the airport's approach to "digitizing its infrastructure", which helped it to secure the emerging airport award for the Indian sub-continent at EMA Dubai.

Bengaluru International Airport began implementing a major transformation programme as a green field airport and went live in May 2008. Since then, we have enjoyed several advantages in our airport operations, and we anticipate many more ahead.

Bengaluru International Airport currently serves 9.9 million passengers, with over 45 destinations in 16 countries. We have 7,500 employees, 70,000 square metres of floor space, and 270 aircraft movements a day. Bengaluru International Airport is India's first Greenfield airport and first public-private partnership (PPP) airport.

We entered the digitization project with a few key philosophies in mind, including:

To offer IT managed services as ICT provider for the airport community
To have in-house skilled and certified professionals
To provide a common platform by deploying Passive Infrastructure Services to the telecom service providers for a level playing field
To partner in progress with the principal OEMs, ISVs and other vendors to ensure quality of service and exceed SLA commitments to the airport community

Common airport infrastructure

As part of the common airport infrastructure, we implemented a campus-wide OFC (Optical Fibre Communications) and LAN network. This included over 160 km of armored OFC, running in ring topology around the airport campus, with more than 6,000 IP network ports campus-wide.

We built our own state-of-the-art telecom center to cater to the voice, data and video & mobility requirements of customers in the airport campus. Bengaluru International Airport became the first Indian airport to implement a Neutral Passive Infrastructure comprising of indoor and outdoor mobile infrastructure for the mobile operators.

Within a short span of three months, we were able to implement the Motorola Tetra Personal Mobile Radios, used by more than 1,500 airport users, including airlines, ground and cargo handlers, caterers, retail and government agencies.

The airport partnered with Microsoft for the implementation of Windows 7 and Windows 2008 Server R2, organization-wide. We were able to save up to 25% operational costs compared to third-party VPN software and increased employee productivity with faster performance and better search results. To enhance productivity we have also implemented Office 2010 and Exchange 2010.

Airport Operations Control Centre

In addition to the indoor-outdoor mobile infrastructure, Bengaluru International Airport achieved several firsts in Indian airports. We have implemented the first and only Airport Operations Control Centre (AOCC) for a true collaborative decision making among the Airport Operations stakeholders, including two ground handlers, three major carriers, as well as sovereign functions like Security and customs.

The AOCC serves as the nerve centre of the entire airport with real-time data being fed into it from diverse departments and collaborative decision making process is facilitated

ICT Operations Control Centre

The airport also implemented an ICT Operations Control Centre (ITOC), where all critical support teams are housed. In addition to facilitating collaboration, this allows the airport Service Desk to support all stakeholders - airlines, concessionaires, internal and external clients. The ITOC is the first Indian airport Service Desk to support all ICT and non-ICT services conforming to ITIL V3 standards.

Common terminal infrastructure

The airport has Implemented Common Use Terminal Equipment (CUTE) systems, including 61 check-in systems and 40 gates systems. The common use Infrastructure facilities have expedited the passenger check-in process substantially. Currently we have an average of 44 million domestic check-ins and 11 million International check-ins a year.

In addition to CUTE, we have 18 of SITA's Common Use Self-Service (CUSS) kiosks for self check-in. These kiosks can handle both CUSS and internet based self-check-in for passengers.

We are also proud to be the first airport to deploy the SITA's Baggage Reconciliation System (BRS) as a managed solution. We are currently handling 36 million bags a year with the BRS and have achieved 100% uptime in the last fiscal year.

Apart from the core IT functions, we have the common terminal IT Infrastructure that includes the following systems:

Flight information display system (FIDS)
WiFi
CCTV surveillance system
Access control system
Public address system
Fire alarm system

Challenges overcome, lessons learned

In the first phase of our digitalization project, we encountered several challenges to embrace the service provider concept. The first was to convince all stakeholders of about the benefits of leveraging a common airport infrastructure. It took great persuasive efforts to break the mindset of a silo approach - especially here in India, where the airport operator had previously never donned the role of service provider.

We also had to persuade the IT security staff of our customers - that is, the airport community (airlines, concessionaires etc.) - and convince them that their security concerns are seamlessly addressed by the Airport IT Team.

We also offered transparent and competitive price points for all the ICT Services irrespective of the type of customer.

We have adopted standard IT framework and processes to support the Campus IT Services round the clock with a minimum committed uptime of 99%.

We have future-proofed our solutions by deploying leading-edge technology solutions.

Performance highlights to date

We are extremely happy with the results of our digitalization project. To date, we have achieved flight punctuality of over 85%. Domestic passenger average wait-time at check-in is just two and a half minutes. International passenger wait-time averages four minutes at check-in and two and a half minutes at immigration.

Passengers wait just six minutes on average for their first checked bag to appear on the baggage carousel.

In the last two years, Bengaluru International Airport has maintained 99.9-100% uptime for all ICT services.

Looking ahead

By the end of the 2010 calendar year, we will improve on our recent progress with upgrades in several areas.

Common terminal infrastructure will provide for passenger's touch screen kiosk to provide real-time flight status, RSS news feeds with live updates and destination weather updates, airport maps. Benefits to the airport will include:

Real-time access to direct feedback (complaints, comments and compliments) from passengers and other airport users, on their user experience in all the touch points at airport
Single integrated platform for providing Airport Information with Store locator Maps for Retail, F&B and Airport Facilities
Source of additional revenue stream through advertising options on the IT enabled Platforms

Other enhancements to be implemented this year (first as proof of concept) include:

Wi-Fi and Broadband services on the air-side
Mobile check-in (in partnership with IATA)
Passenger tracker solutions (POC completed)
Corporate performance management tools (Phase - I implemented)
Mobility solution for Airport workers (POC by Sep / OCT)

We remain committed to meeting the expectations of today's discerning customer. To do so, we continually need to raise the bar to achieve higher performance goals and delight the customer with superior customer services and service level commitments.

Innovative solutions like converged and integrated IP and Web-based solutions are the order of the day. The Airport IT Services must be cost-effective without compromising service standards. And they must address every stakeholder's needs and expectations.

*Based on a presentation to the Digital Airports Industry Insight Session, Air Transport IT Summit 2010.