FEBRUARY 2013 GROUND HANDLING INTERNATIONAL
SITA has been working a lot on this technology and indeed, in the second quarter of this year, we will be starting a trial with an important carrier at a European airport. We think that the idea of the “tap and go” check-in process, that will involve the passenger merely tapping the phone screen when held close to a reader, is the future. This alleviates some of the problems that have been experienced by travellers: we believe that only 4-5% of passengers have been successful with current 2D mobile boarding passes. The customer worries about the battery status of the phone, connectivity, and so on. Airports tell us that the current paper-free technology is worse than the paper- based system; more and more today people have to show a boarding card as they go through the airport. This leads to stress, having to produce a phone all the time, and if the signal isn’t read properly then a paper ticket is required. So it all goes back to square one.” In Renaud’s view, NFC has all the answers to these problems. By utilising a SIM card, the requisite information can be easily stored within the phone. Renaud says that there are some 45 mobile operators around the world who support this type of technology: security is guaranteed and the fact that there is an open standard endears itself to the developers. In this manner, the individual’s phone behaves like a credit card and as Renaud sees it, this is the foreseeable future. “We believe that from something like 5% usage this will accelerate to 80% or more,” he enthuses. “It will never get to 100% because some people won’t use it. But it’s highly accurate and sits well alongside technology like biometrics, and will become part of the total airport experience.”
Thus, all that the traveller will require is a smartphone supporting NFC: this can be enabled by the mobile operator. Renaud envisages a situation in which a “cardlet” will be downloaded from the Internet and which will contain the boarding pass formats for all airlines. We’re talking here of a sort of micro- app, for want of a better word. After all, today it is perfectly feasible to have a smart card that could contain Amex and Visa interfaces along with, say, an Oystercard for travel in London and even your driving licence. All this can be added to a SIM card so that it, in effect, becomes a virtual wallet. “We now need a standard – that’s the next step. SITA could establish this and make it available.” A measure of the airline interest can be gauged from the forthcoming trial: the airline in question, according to
Renaud, didn’t ask if the technology were available but rather when and how. The other big attraction of the NFC concept is that of cost: readers for the mobile phones can be very cheap indeed (under US$20, in fact), which endears itself to the investor. Renaud foresees a necessary cross-over period in the adoption of this type of technology and admits that legacy systems would still be employed during this changeover. He concludes: “The system has
already worked well at Toulouse, where we started off, working with Orange and Blackberry. There’s huge potential with this advance, and we foresee things like parking and lounge use being incorporated with the phone.”
An Australian perspective
The appropriately-named RAMP company, which is based in Australia, is very focussed on RFID and it is able to offer solutions for asset tracking, people tracking and vehicle tracking. Although much of its work lies outside the aviation sector proper, it has, nonetheless, been involved with airport-oriented solutions and applications. Shane Pidding, one of the enterprise’s engineers, was able to elaborate on what exactly RAMP had brought to the sector.
“One of the applications has been that of RFID portals for departure carousels. These detect permanent bag tags and display flight details for baggage handling staff. This is used by Qantas throughout Australia: in all, about 90 units are in operation.” Then there are RFID/barcode portals for arrivals belt. These are used to alert baggage handling staff if bags placed on the arrivals belt are at the wrong port; they are also to alert staff when their bag is due to arrive at the carousel. The enterprise offers handheld reader solutions to complement the above as well as solutions for the tracking of catering trolleys.
RFID UPDATE 47
SITA feels that NFC can answer most questions
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