Air freight traffic volumes continue to surge and are forecast to triple over the next twenty years. As a result, the aviation industry must face the risk of capacity issues, and subsequently, investment in infrastructure must gain pace to meet ever increasing demand, ensure safety and security, maximise efficiency and deliver added value for users and operators.
Many aviation facilities are outdated and in need of major renovations or expansions, requiring investment in terminals, runways, hangars and storage facilities to cope with heightened volumes.
To successfully deliver efficient aviation infrastructure, a number of key factors must be addressed, these include:
1. An informed approach to safety and security:
Security concerns are being addressed in the context of a desire for greater efficiency in passenger traffic flow, prompting airports to rethink how they lay out checkpoints and process passengers.
Typically airports focus on the safe transit and efficient management of the check-in to check-out processes, throughout the past 25 years airports have been designed to become ‘agile’ and have an adaptable design to suit a changing environment, applying simple and effective safety measures hinged around unconnected, isolated technologies and process driven social application.
Through the development of the Internet of Things (IoT) and sensor based technologies, airports have the opportunity to become securely connected and to accurately monitor and invigilate the transit of passengers or cargo throughout the whole facility. This enables strict process and procedure through automated systems which when aligned with human interaction ensures an informed approach to safety and security.
2. Growing pressure to reduce costs and improve operational efficiency:
Increased demand for air travel means more passengers who require more amenities, more terminal space, larger waiting areas and wider corridors. Aligned with this, heightened requirement for additional cargo storage and shipment creates the need for efficient logistics throughout the facility.
Airports 3.0 or ‘Smart Airports’ regularly exploit and combine emerging smart technologies and matured processes to deliver continuous efficiency throughout a passenger or cargo’s transit.
3. Added value:
A change in trends means airports are seeing a shift in user requirements, the industry realises the added value of adopting Airports 3.0 processes to meet users transforming demands.
Waldeck realise the importance of this digital shift, offering smart airport solutions that target many customer segments, including passengers, retail and hospitality tenants, and logistics companies. An extended approach to user experience adds benefit to the end-to-end experience of all users and operators.
Our Approach
Although the term ‘Building Information Modelling’ (BIM) has been recognised in the construction industry for over 10 years, many industries are now starting to see tangible evidence that the operation of complex facilities through use of operational digital models or ‘Digital Twins’ can offer significant whole life savings and reduced safety case.
The Airports 3.0 model aligns with international BIM mandates, allowing our clients to not only construct a facility efficiently, but for the information to be utilised beyond the construction programme for operational uses such as preventative maintenance, refurbishment or Operations and Maintenance (O&M).
Benefits
Through early stakeholder engagement and collaboration, Waldeck develop tangible solutions and digital efficiencies that future-proof long term gains for clients by delivering reduced Operational Expenditure (OPEX) that maximizes cost and operational certainty for the maintenance of built assets.
To find out more about our Smart Airport capability, please contact James Thompson, Associate Director by email or by calling 08450 990285.