Dubai International Airport (DXB) has reduced its immigration counter process to six seconds compared to 40 seconds before, thanks to Data intelligence as 90 per cent of passengers are pre-cleared, a senior official revealed.

Participating in a panel discussion “Airport Collaborative Decision Making (A-CDM)” at the Global Airport Leaders’ Forum (GALF) running parallel to the Airport Show, Thani Al Zaffin, director general and Board Member of emaratech, said: “Our goal is to make the customer happy with the enjoyable experience.”
 
He also talked about the smart trolleys. “We have invested in intelligent trolleys which will guide passengers to everything and all the way to the boarding gate."

Industry experts said smart airports will improve passengers’ experience and it will help diversify the airports’ income streams significantly with the implementation of new technologies.

Non-aeronautical revenue sources – car parking, land rents, terminal concession, and advertising - contribute significantly to global airport revenues. In its latest report, the Airport Council International (ACI) mentioned that non-aeronautical revenues of airports account for around 40 per cent of the total revenues. In 2016 global airports generated $152 billion total revenues, according to ACI.

A three-member panel, moderated by PA Consulting Partner David Huttner, debated ways to diversify airports’ income streams as new technology comes in.  

Responding to the moderator question, Airport International Group chief executive officer Kjeld Binger said: “Size and region matter for digital transformation.” Giving examples of Asia Pacific and America, Kjeld said: “It’s all about knowing your customer. You need to know your customer and customer’s needs in order to try to target your efforts in advertising. But even then, it’s not just a straightforward situation. The level of technical expertise in various regions are different.”

Another panellist, PS Nair, chief executive officer of GMR Group, said: “When we took over Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport, the commercial revenue was negligible. Today, the same airport is ranked number 1 in the world in service quality.”

GMR Group operates Rajiv Gandhi International Airport, Hyderabad and Mactan Cebu International Airport in the Philippines.

Panellists at the Airport Privatisation and Infrastructure Financing put the spotlight on airport privatisation, especially Saudi Arabia, where the GCC region’s largest country is privatising its airports by way of concession process.

The moderator of the panel - Dr Fethi Chebil, director general of PrivateAir Saudi Arabia - noted that Saudi Arabia is trying three main models for the privatisation of its airports in the country. The first method is to corporatise the management of the airport, which was done for Dammam and Riyadh airports, the second model is public-private-partnership (P3) and the third one is management contract, which was done in Jeddah recently. He also highlighted two financing models – government and private. - TradeArabia News Service