The Airport Turnaround Specialist

Wireless communications accelerate Barcelona Airport’s turnaround time.

Whether large or small, national or international, airports across the globe tend to have one overriding business objective: making turnaround more efficient. The truth is, the faster an airport can safely turn around passengers, luggage and cargo, the more revenue it brings in. This translates into increased potential profits for the airport’s constituents, including airlines, service providers, retailers, parking and maintenance management companies and more. And increased revenues and profitability aren’t the only drivers of the need for more efficient turnaround.

Passenger Satisfaction

In spite of the recent worldwide economic slowdown, travel—whether for business or leisure—remains a major economic contributor in virtually every city and country. Travel dollars are not only significant for the airport facilities themselves, but also for their cities and communities. For both, satisfying the passengers who spend many of those dollars is critical, especially today.

The truth is, today’s airports and their communities are encountering an interesting psychological phenomenon. In our increasingly image-conscious environment, travelers and other consumers often tend to attach their feelings about an airport to the city itself. That’s not so surprising. The airport is often the first and/or last impression a traveler has of a city. If the airport is run smoothly and efficiently, with timely service, on-time arrivals and departures, few luggage problems and no long delays, customers tend to feel good about both the airport and the city. If they experience the kind of nightmares we read about all too often—lost luggage, maintenance problems, hours spent waiting for an arrival or departure—they tend to think the opposite. The stakes are high, especially for international facilities like the Barcelona Airport.

Turning Around Barcelona

Barcelona Airport is the second largest airport in Spain, serving over 30 million passengers, and supporting more than 300,000 flights and 100 million Kg (220,000,000 lbs) of cargo every year. AENA, operator of the Barcelona Airport and 47 other airports in Spain, is the largest airport group in the world in terms of passenger traffic. They understand passengers and the need to maximize the passenger experience. They also know that one of the most effective ways of optimizing passenger and cargo turnaround is through improved coordination and communications.

Communications System Objectives

As part of their continuing efforts to improve operations efficiency, Barcelona Airport management took a hard look at replacing its outdated analog system. To maximize efficiency and control, the communications systems had to support reliable and secure voice and data communications. It had to deliver exceptional coverage both outside — to support activities such as apron, ramp, gate and fleet maintenance operations — and inside to support communications with airport management, service personnel and passengers themselves. The system also had to comply with the enhanced security standards set by industry and government regulations, and had to be resilient, reliable and scalable for future expansion.

Motorola Digital Wireless Communications Network

Barcelona Airport decided to replace its analog communications with a leading-edge IP-based wireless communications system. The airport chose the mission-critical Motorola Digital Radio Public Safety Solution as its new network. The Motorola system is a fully integrated wireless communications solution proven around the world to meet the requirements of a variety of users, including airports and other transportation industry applications, as well as other mission-critical applications like public safety, and industrial and enterprise environments of all types and sizes. In addition to providing powerful, flexible wireless communications capabilities, the system is modular, mobile, scalable, compact and affordable.

In addition to a flexible wireless architecture that delivers exceptionally high quality voice service plus seamless data capabilities, the system includes 150 handheld radios and 80 mobile units. The radios are rugged and resilient, resistant to difficult weather conditions and heavy usage. With real-time data service an important goal, the system allows users easy access to the data they need through an integrated browser and GPS receiver. All radios utilize the same intuitive user interface to help maximize productivity and minimize training time.

Impressive Results

The Barcelona Airport community is already impressed with the numerous Motorola system benefits. The network and radios are providing access to secure, always available voice and data communications for all the various user groups including airport management, airport services, maintenance and engineering staff, fire and security personnel, airlines, retailers and other service providers and health and medical services. Downtime is reduced, delays are minimized and passenger, luggage and cargo turnarounds are lessened substantially.

The Future

With ambitious plans for future network and service expansion, airport management is also impressed with the system’s scalability, in particular its ability to provide a powerful platform for the future. Barcelona’s plans include increasing coverage, especially in indoor environments, and the use of sophisticated new functionalities such as real-time asset tracking.

Thanks in large part to the new Motorola wireless communications solution, Barcelona Airport’s modernization is successfully under way.

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