Apr 23, 2019
The 2019 ACI Asia-Pacific/World Annual General Assembly, Conference & Exhibition hosted the NEXTT Generation Session on Thursday 4 April 2019. The New Experience Travel Technologies (NEXTT) is a vision for the future of air travel. This joint ACI/IATA initiative addresses growing capacity issues and the need to maximize the use of infrastructure while becoming more efficient in processes.
The panel discussion was moderated by Anson Bailey, Head of Technology, Hong Kong for KPMG China and included airports and industry representatives: Brian Cobb, Chief Innovation Officer, Cincinnati / Northern Kentucky International Airport; Steve Hankinson, Vice President Planning and Innovation, Vancouver International Airport; Steve Lee, Chief Information Officer / Group SVP, Changi Airport Group; and Alan Newbold, Director Advanced Digital Engineering, ARUP.
After a brief introduction by Anson Bailey and a short video to introduce the NEXTT concept to the audience, Steve Lee described how innovation is key for Changi Airport (SIN) to tackle complexity and competition, and how it is built on continuous improvement efforts. With the deployment of Fast and Seamless Travel (FAST),SIN is demonstrating that the use of biometrics, data exchange between stakeholders, and great user-centric design are at the core of their strategy.
Alan Newbold from ARUP followed with his presentation which included a real time airport roadmap, a 6-step process to make best use of historic, real time and predictive data sets. He also highlighted stakeholder collaboration and change management as two core challenges blocking digitalization in aviation.
Steve Hankinson introduced the FutureXPRESS, a learning lab at Vancouver International Airport used to demonstrate the future of the passenger journey in a digital world. He emphasized the importance of intermodal connectivity (rail, cruises, air) in the end-to-end passenger journey process. Finally, he presented the CheckItXPRESS, one of the world’s most accessible, efficient, and intuitive self-service bag drop products.
Rounding out this esteemed panel was Brian Cobb from the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport (CVG), who presented their approach to innovation which involves engaging start-ups and integrating universities among many other parties to pilot projects through proof of concept testing creating the opportunity for scaled deployments, which is driving change within the aviation community.
