The Rise of the Smart Passenger: Analysis of impact in Airport Terminals

Airport infrastructure evolves alongside legacy sys­tems and processes that limits the ability to fully realise the efficiency potential of costly renovations. Airports will continue to take advantage of current and future technologies. Nevertheless, for such systems to work as efficiently as possible, the passenger should play an active role. This paper analyzes the effect of a new type of emerging ’smart passenger’, one that cooperates to be enabled to use the most efficient processes for a seamless experience. The technological and behavioural enhancements are assessed with the simulation of two case studies: London City and Palma de Mallorca airports. Results indicate that the introduction of this type of passenger brings benefit in terms of level of service indicators not only to this type of passenger but also to the traditional ones (business, visitor and leisure). However, the impact differs depending on the type of airport and the proportion of ’smart passengers’.