Millions of
people find air travel frightening and exhausting, but for many the most
daunting part isn't the flight itself.
It's
getting to and through your departure airport and at your destination navigating
your way from the plane to the street outside.
Even after
fighting traffic jams or manhandling heavy bags on and off public vehicles,
when you reach the airport the hard part of the trip has just begun.
You have to
make sure you're at the right terminal and that you and your bags are checked
in. After you've passed through security, often a slow and anxiety-inducing
process, you have to find your gate--not always simple in a big airport stuffed
with shopping malls.
At your
destination, the process can be just as confusing, particularly if you're
flying internationally.
But a
variety of existing and new technologies should make things easier for flyers,
says travel technology expert Nawal Taneja, chairman of the Department of Aviation at Ohio State
University.
The
Internet has already assumed a crucial role in facilitating air travel.
Airlines now rely greatly on the Web for bookings. Many now charge an extra fee
for a telephone booking and some won't even let you make reservations by phone
or through a travel agent.
Internet
check-in is commonplace and through their Web sites airports and airlines are
providing flight schedules and updates on the timing and progress of individual
flights. Some airports, such as Frankfurt and Amsterdam, also offer flight,
hotel and rental car booking on their sites.
Boston,
Portland and Montreal airports are innovating in a different way. Their sites
host computer-graphic
Airport Wayfinder videos that are designed to
familiarize travelers with key airport features.
These
videos can be designed to highlight the locations of parking, check-in, security,
dining and retail facilities. Airports also can--and do--use them to show
passengers how to navigate through huge departure concourses and international
arrival halls.
Several
major airlines use the system, too, showing destination-specific videos inflight to help passengers navigate through the airport
upon arrival and to provide local information.
Airports
are also helping passengers in other ways. Many are offering remote check-in
and baggage drop-off facilities at hotels, car parks, car rental offices and
train stations. Auckland airport in New Zealand
provides signs informing passengers how long it should take to reach their
gates at a comfortable walking pace.
Airlines
and airports have begun using radio frequency
identification device (RFID) tags attached to luggage to route checked bags
automatically to the right flight and to make it easy to find any wrongly
routed bags.
Eventually,
512-bit RFID tags will be incorporated into luggage during manufacture, say
experts at RFID manufacturer FKI Logistex. Your
luggage tag will be reprogrammed every time you take a flight, providing full
details of your exact routing--including connections--and how to contact you at
each end of the flight. Soon, hopefully, airlines may find it much harder to
lose a suitcase.
Together,
RFID and wireless communications will transform the airport experience, said Taneja. Airlines and airports already send text messages to
passengers' cell phones providing updated flight information. But that is just
the beginning.
Manufacturers
such as Nokia are developing 'teleconvergent' interactive mobile devices containing GPS position-locating chips, RFID
tags and enough processing power to provide "analytics," as well as audio,
video and text capability.
In the
future, not only will passengers be able to use their handhelds to avoid
traffic jams on their way to the airport, but when they reach it their wireless
units will be invaluable.
GPS-enabled
handhelds will allow passengers to navigate airport terminals easily and on a
real-time basis they will identify the shortest security lines, blocked exits
and gate changes, said Taneja. The units' analytics
will tell passengers how long it will take them to reach their gates and if
they can make their connections.
Airlines will
be able not only to let passengers check in through their cell phones--Japan's
All Nippon Airways already does so--but also to send barcodes to mobile units to
act as boarding cards, said Taneja.
Should
passengers go to the wrong terminal or become too absorbed in shopping and miss
boarding calls, airline gate staff will be able to "blip" them both to alert
the passengers and to show staff exactly where passengers are. This will allow
airlines to decide whether to close a boarding gate on time or even to offload
baggage if checked passengers can't be located.
Meanwhile X-ray screening technology is becoming so
capable of showing the details of people's bodies that in the future passengers
might have to decide between 'privacy' and 'non-privacy' security lines, said Taneja. They may have to choose whether or not to join what
might be a quicker-moving line at the expense of displaying very private
information to security staff.
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