The Covid pandemic has been an incredibly disruptive event for airports and many are still feeling the ramifications of its impact. How can airports be better prepared for disruptions of the future?
By BEUMER Group
For Isavia, the owner of Iceland’s Keflavik Airport, the answer lies in technology and data use. Automating all processes and sharing data among stakeholders, will enable airports to better sustain disruptive events.
According to Isavia’s Director of Assets and Infrastructure, Maren Másdóttir, data will assist airports in issues such as limited staffing during upheavals. Másdóttir says:
“We’re gathering data but we’re not necessarily utilising it correctly or as much as we should. We need to be using data analytics to ensure we’re taking the right action at the right time, with the right people and that we’re getting the right information from our assets to utilise and maintain them as efficiently as possible.”
Furthermore, says Másdóttir, airports need to extend automation to all their operations – at check in, prior to check in, after sortation, on the apron. The intelligence exists but needs to be adapted to the airport community.
Másdóttir notices a welcome development that has come from the pandemic – stakeholders are connecting through integrated systems, making airports more agile than before.
