For years, commercial airports have been examples for implementing innovative technologies. In the course of the COVID-19 crisis the innovation ability has become an essential issue for both small and big commercial airports. On 25 February, four experts from the Wildau Institute of Technology network have been discussing the core challenges of automation and digitalization at commercial airports with 40 participants, among them students at WIT and Technical University Wildau, lecturers, alumni and prospective students.
In order to give a rough overview of relevant technological developments, Jens-Dietrich Behne, Global Industry Leader Airports at T-Systems International GmbH, has presented the global perspective and the state of the art in terms of technologies. As airports are strongly interconnected both internally and with external actors, complex logistical and communicational processes need to be adapted to the modern requirements. Tine Haas, Principal Business Line Aviation at Dornier International GmbH, has been presenting the topic of airport process automation and stakeholder cooperation. After that, Sascha Schmitt, Team Leader Multichannel Branding at Fraport AG, has introduced the passengers’ point of view. He elaborated on how new technologies might affect and improve customer journey and experience under changing societal and economic circumstances.
After these short introductory presentations, moderator Patrick Zeuner, Head of Airport Partnerships at kiwi.com, has opened the floor for discussion. Once again, the participants were eager to discuss all the tackled issues. They also contributed to the discussion by reporting and assessing their own professional experience in those fields. All this helped to point out the present and future challenges of the industry. Although digitalization and automation have been seen as the ‘way to go’ in the future, many participants pointed out that there are obstacles that might slow down the development, such as political requirements such as data protection and current economic situation. However, the discussion also showed that there are valuable and promising concepts for overcoming difficult times, some of which are already functioning. It became clear that although the current crisis will change the airport landscape a lot, there is also space for optimism. Technologies combined with creativity, offbeat strategies and holistic approaches might help commercial airports to prosper in the future.
The next Wildau Aviation Talk event will take place in Autumn 2021. Stay tuned and feel free to propose interesting discussion topics! Just write us an email at marketing@wit-wildau.de.
Kontakt
Viatcheslav Obodzinskiy, M.A.
Programme Manager
Tel.: +49 (0) 3375 508 595
E-Mail: marketing@wit-wildau.de
Wildau Institute of Technology (WIT)
Technische Hochschule Wildau
Hochschulring 1
15745 Wildau
