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Executive Summary
Airports require strategic thinking for competition and increasing consumer base. Airport management needs to implement new initiatives based on their competitive strength. Dubai International Airport has adopted new technologies to enhance its strategic strength. The present paper evaluates Dubai International Airport in its acceptance of adopting new technologies and reviews available literature and the success story of Dubai International Airport in its new capability. Dubai International Airport has received a lot of acclaim and interest from researchers with the successful implementation of new technologies like Big Data, Cloud, and Analytics. Dubai International Airport has seen unprecedented growth through the adaptation of higher technology and never hesitating with the use and acceptance of emerging technologies. Aviation industry has been undergoing a lot of innovations and product/feature developments that might not work in smaller airports or small runways. Airbus 380 is one such example where according to the need of the new aircraft, DBX expanded its runway and gates. Dubai Airport has a robust background infrastructure when it comes to both hardware and software, tools, and processes. A host of hardware equipment including radar has been employed by DBX, for capturing data and feed into the metrological monitoring system. Dubai International Airport has received several acclaims, rewards and mentions as a role model in the aviation industry with its adaptation of modern approach and use of emerging technologies for solving problems on a day-to-day basis. Adaptation of autonomous tools for cleaning, implementation of smartphone-based applications, RFID tags for baggage and thin computer clients for providing information to customer on-the-fly are some of the smart implementations of technology adopted by Dubai International Airport. Owing to these implementations and adaptation of newer technologies, Dubai Airport has won recognition as a leader in the aviation industry and boasts of a massive passenger movement.
Introduction
Airports require strategic thinking for catering to the high demands rising out of competition and increasing consumer base. Airport management needs to implement new initiatives and improve on their competitive strength. Dubai International Airport (DXB) has adopted new technologies to enhance its strategic strength. The new technologies cater to different areas of aviation and airport management including general condition, resource, security and strategic management. Implementation of imaging technologies for security screening has been widely adopted by Dubai International Airport. Dubai has earned the tag of one of the most luxurious and high standard international city. The proposal of Dubai Expo in 2020 has further fueled the use of various emerging technologies at the Dubai airport. Dubai International Airport is acknowledged as one of the top airports across the globe with projections of servicing more than one million passengers. Organizations such as ACAR (Advisory Council for Aeronautics Research), Europe have taken the new challenges faced by airports, to plan methodologies and technologies for airport solutions (Bitelmal, 2010; Em-t.com, 2016).
The present paper evaluates Dubai International Airport in its acceptance of adopting new and emerging technologies. The paper presents a review of available literature on aviation emerging technologies and the success story of Dubai International Airport in its capability of using those emerging technologies.
Literature Review
Dubai International Airport has received a lot of acclaim and interest from researchers after its successful implementation of new and emerging technologies for enhanced levels of operations, user comfort, and security. Dubai Airport has been acclaimed by researchers in its professional approach to upgrading its facilities to become the fastest growing hub in the past one decade. Dubai Airport has managed to attract major airlines with a substantial passenger traffic. Dubai Airport is also one of the prominent hubs for cargo movement across the globe. Dubai Airport has experienced growth even during the period of recession and global economic meltdown. The success story presented by Dubai International Airport presents many factors like political will, social, economic and technological. The use of technology has been done judiciously by DXB through an application of skills and knowledge. Aviation industry has been influenced by the introduction of new technology. The advancements include the development of new aircraft like Airbus 380, advancements in the electrical system technologies of airplanes and the introduction of high energy saving electrical switches. The new advancements in the aviation technology have led to new requirements which DXB was quick in providing necessary support and adapting to newer technological enhancements. Airbus 380 requires large gateways and long runways, along with different operational procedures. DXB has received several awards including the Dubai Government Excellence Award, Best Long Haul Airports, and Leading Airport Award in the year 2008 (Bitelmal, 2010).
Current Technological Advancements at DXB
The development of a robotic system at DXB has been in place for the cleaning of the airport and the elliptically tapered structures of the airport concourse joining the airport terminals. The cleaning system is high-tech with two cleaning satellite units connected to the main control unit. The cleaning system can clean at a tilt of 83o from the horizontal surface. The technological device consists of sensors, controller and communication channels. It is a completely autonomous system with robotic capabilities. The autonomous cleaning system represents one aspect of the adoption of emerging technologies at the Dubai Airport. Dubai airport has been utilizing technological capabilities to complement its ground staff and also provide a world class experience for the travelers (Sadjadi & Jarrah, 2011).
The terrain and environmental conditions surrounding the Dubai International Airport contribute to the technological innovations adopted by the Dubai Airport Management. Roughly ten days in a year Dubai faces thunderstorms, and fog for almost four months in a year. DBX uses state of the art technology for collecting weather data for sending to the metrological department for an accurate and appropriate forecast. The technological equipment at the Dubai airport includes C-Band weather surveillance radar for an automatic detection of gust fronts and microbursts. The underlying technology provides data every five minutes. A vertical profile of liquid water, humidity and temperature are provided by Radiometrics MP-3000A radiometer observing data over microwave frequencies of 22-30 GHz and 51-59 GHz. A Doppler-based radar analyzes the air fluctuations mainly for turbulence. The hardware is based on Linux clusters, with a separation of concerns and multiple nodes for algorithm control and data ingest for weather prediction and display of metrological data. A turbulence forecasting system uses the data gathered from wind profiler, radiometer and other input devices to detect and predict the occurrences of turbulence (Barrere et al., 2008).
DBX employs several technology companies like Dubai Technology Partners (DTP) and UFIS Solutions for managing its operations through tools like Flight Information Processing (FIP), Airport Operation Database (AODB) and Flight Information Display Systems. Additional programs like web-based staff management system, data auditing tools and database systems provide additional functionalities required by the airport that is growing fast. Flight schedules across both the terminals, Terminal 1 and Terminal 2 are managed through the software systems acquired or developed by DXB partners. The IT solution implemented and adapted by DBX is the state-of-the-art solution with full capabilities of security, data capabilities and data integration platforms (Amadeus.com).
Challenges
The implementation of emerging technologies at Dubai Airport has been filled with an equal number of challenges. The first of the challenge is to get the airport management to spend money on implementing these technologies. The other challenge has been an effective design of the new technology enabled processes. Customers’ support is a delicate affair specifically when it comes to managing users at the airport. Airport authority must ensure that the time of a typical passenger is not wasted, and also, the due security process and other on-boarding and de-boarding processes have been taken care of. Another major challenge is of the hiring of trained staff or training of existing staff. Dubai Airport also faces certain challenges for certain new technologies like body scanner which were not allowed to be used because of privacy concerns for the travelers, and their use was prohibited by the government (Bitelmal, 2010).
Passenger Acceptance of IT Trend
With the mass acceptance of IT technologies into mobiles, smartphones, and handheld devices an average consumer has become much more advanced and aware about the happenings. Smartphones allow users to check their booking status and perform boarding and onboarding activities and check-in. Airports must keep themselves updated regarding the prevailing IT trends. An average consumer has become much more informed and smart when it comes to availing services and spending money. Travelers demand effective management in check-in lines, disruption, and baggage handling. Self-service based options for check-in and other basic activities related to flight are in-demand and acceptable by passengers. Airlines must understand that experiences at the airport that a passenger undergoes shaped up the perceptions about the airline as well for that passenger (Bitelmal, 2010).
Airport of Tomorrow
The enhancements and improvements at Dubai airport have all been fueled by the demands of the consumers, industry trends and advancements in technology. Dubai Airport has been quick to respond to the changing tide of aviation industry, consumer demands and an efforts to enhance user experience and airport image. Dubai Airport has implemented Near Field Communication (NFC) based devices providing a one-touch check-in features supported by staff personnel. RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) based tags are used for baggage enabling tracking of baggage against the passenger and also providing real-time details and movement of the passenger baggage across the airport's baggage system. Airport staff with tablets, handheld devices, and other computer thin-clients are available to provide on-the-fly information to passengers for their queries and facilitate check-in processes during peak time (Amadeus.com).
Analytics and big data are two technologies that mine and present huge volumes of raw data into meaningful information. Dubai Airport has been applying the big data and analytics into large data sources of flight arrivals, departures, and user data. The user data is stored in large data warehouse for Airport Operation Database (AODB) and available for later analysis and mining purpose (Amadeus.com).
Airport security systems have changed dramatically than what they used to be. Most of the major enhancements have been largely due to extreme security concerns arising out of terrorism. All airports are required to perform a hundred percent screening of passenger baggage using special systems for explosive detection and trace detection systems (Feng, 2007, pp. 1299).
Dubai too has these advanced level of technologies as it has one of the busiest airports around the world with nationals from one hundred forty countries visiting and leaving the city. The systems employed use complex algorithms for detecting any discrepancies or threats, providing security information about all baggage and highlighting any detected issue. The next generation of technology that is image-based technology is used for providing a critical base of airport baggage and security (Em-t.com, 2016).
Conclusion
Dubai International Airport has gained a substantial lead into the industry with its strategic management, foresight, and adoption of new age technologies. Effective use of hardware and software capabilities have ensured that Dubai Airport gained maximum traffic and stayed ahead of the competition. Airport operations are supported by state-of-the-art technology like remote sensing hardware and metrological hazard prediction. Dubai Airport’s adoption of newer technologies includes an implementation of autonomous cleaning systems for its connected airport terminals 1 and 2, use of smartphones and hand-held devices for check-in purpose. DBX uses software processes that allow users to manage their flight schedules and process all kinds of input data and store it in the corresponding database.
Dubai airport has won several awards for its adoption of technology and transformation with a focus on customer satisfaction. Implementation of several features like RFID for baggage and an enhanced user experience. Adaptation of storage technologies and cloud has made the journey easy for the transformation and development of a user-friendly airport system. The availability of hardware equipment has also benefitted in proving exceptional services to the passengers and users of the airport.
Reference
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