Features
17 mai 18

Top 10 most innovative airports

They are cosmopolitan hubs connecting people from around the globe; crossroads for business, knowledge and economics; and even more, they are the summum of transportation. No wonder some airports are positioned nowadays at the forefront of innovation.

Flying as a Service

While Mobility as a Service (MaaS) is rising on the road, the importance of the passenger experience is growing in aviation as well. What’s more, several airports implement innovative smart technology to enhance the mobility service. In 2016 (1) Miami International Airport received the first Annual Airport Innovation Award, followed by (2) Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport in 2017.
Smart technology to speed up and enhance the travel experience has lately been implemented in the smart gates of (3) Dubai International Airport, the new terminal of (4) Singapore's Changi Airport and the new Terminal in (5) Incheon International Airport in Seoul, South Korea. (6) Tokyo’s Haneda Airport is even going to deploy robots before the start of the Tokyo Olympics in 2020. And (7) Copenhagen Airport plays the card of augmented reality to guide passengers through its facility.

Playgrounds for AVs

Thanks to its high traffic density, an exceptional portion of which is made up of pedestrians, and known for its short and unpredictable paths, the mobility pattern of an airport is very similar to the one of metropolitan areas. Considering this similarity, it should be no surprise that many companies set up partnerships with airports to try out their automated vehicle technology.

Both to enhance passenger comfort and to increase the efficiency of operations, and in some cases additionally as a pilot project for the tech company, tech companies team up with airports around the world. The London airports (8) Heathrow, and (9) Gatwick, and the Parisian airport (10) Charles de Gaulle are frontrunners in the field.

Image: Miami International Airport

Author: Fien Van den Steen