Technology aids Gulf airports to manage growing passengers
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Passenger traffic is rising 13.3% in the Gulf compared to 4.1% worldwide, with these statistics GCC airports face unique challenges in trying to accommodate large influx of demand, says Jihad Boueri, VP – airport solutions, SITA – Middle East, India & Africa. 
To help cope with a huge rise in passenger traffic, airports in the region are implementing sophisticated new technology to help boost efficiency and provide a smoother experience for travellers.
“Airports in the GCC are running at 92% of their capacity, which is huge. In Saudi Arabia, they are running at 130%, so there is imminent demand to accommodate this number of passengers,” he added.
The three main areas of technology that Gulf airports are focussing on are mobility, self-service, and collaborative decision making, says Boueri. Self-service initiatives were launched several years ago with the aim of allowing passengers to go through airports without need for personal assistance. These include kiosks at self-check-in on kiosks, self-baggage tagging and drop-off, and e-gate. Abu Dhabi International Airport is even doing a trial for self-boarding at the gate.
In the future, Gulf airports also will be using smartphone tracking technologies to monitor passenger flow with the aim of allocating resources in a pre-emptive way to avoid congestion and reduce queues.
However, despite all the new technology, one main challenge in implementing these new initiatives is that not all stakeholders are bound to abide by them. “There are many entities in the airport and it does not control all of them. For example, the airport cannot control or impose technology used by security people in the region. It is something that needs to be agreed at the government level,” he noted.
However, while airports cannot choose the type of technology that security staff will use to screen passengers, they can implement real-time queue management applications which can flag bottlenecks early on and allow resources to be deployed quickly to avoid excessive delays in security screening areas.
