Dubai: Redesigning airport processes with brevity in mind holds the key to making passengers' experience more enjoyable, an official said.
Thani Abdullah Al Zaffin, Director General and Board-Member of Emaratech, said: “Even with technologies adapted, [airports] still do not meet travellers’ expectations.”
He was speaking at The Future of Borders Conference on Wednesday, where he announced the launch of a new system ‘Eyen,’ which performs simultaneous document and iris scans to quickly verify travelers’ identities at border gates.
“Eyen -- which means guard, sight, noble and people of the region -- in the Arabic language and means sight and vision in English, has been integrated in the new intelligent travel gate, which will be launched soon,” he said.
“The system also maintains highest level of security using the latest iris recognition technology, which has has an average acquisition speed of up to two seconds,” he added.
Emaratech, part of the Investment Corporation of Dubai, is one of the leading technology and consulting companies in the region.
"We have to think from a passenger’s perspective when thinking about innovation at airports,” he said. “A traveller’s experience at the airport begins at the parking lot. Generally, periods of waiting unnerve passengers the most. The trick is to turn unoccupied time, by occupied time.”
App navigator
“Emaratech is investing in a new passenger smartphone app, which acts as an indoor guide through the airport processes leading up to boarding. It will give them a step-by-step outline and checklist of what they need to do while at the airport. It will have a tracking system so as to ensure they stay on course.”
Al Zaffin said that most passengers do not mind having their smartphone tracked while at the airport, saying that “a recent study shows that 53 per cent of US travellers readily allow airports to track their phone.”
He also stressed on the need to deal with bottlenecks in airport traffic at security scanning stations.
“It can get really annoying for a passenger to unpack his/her laptop, coins, and belts to pass through a security station. We are investing in a security trolley, which allows passengers to simply walk through the checkpoints at the airport without having to go through the hassle of unpacking and unloading.”
He noted that the introduction of the security trolley would increase the number of passengers passing from security point from 250 passengers per hour to 400.
“Dubai airports is the busiest airport in the world and it is only expected to become busier with the coming years,” he said.
Therefore, Al Zaffin pointed out, it is an imperative to make processes at the airport as succinct as possible, especially with the expected growth.
“Who recalls the time when there were separate queues for different processes such as eye scans. We are trying to introduce brevity to certain processes that will be efficient for both authorities and travellers. It now takes about 45-60 seconds to go through immigration counters and 30 seconds to go through the smart gates.”
