Fast Track Innovation and Uptake Multi-modality and Passenger Experience

Project results are expected to contribute to the following expected outcomes.

• Environment. Optimised operations due to improved gate-to-gate planning contribute to the optimisation of fuel-burn and therefore to reduced CO₂ emissions per flight. Additional environmental benefits will come from alleviating congestion at and around airports by improving passenger flows (through predictability and single ticketing), from supporting access to / egress from airports using environmentally friendly means and from integrating vertiports for electric UAM vehicles.
• Passenger experience. Optimised operations due to improved gate-to-gate planning contribute to the optimisation of fuel-burn and therefore to reduced CO₂ emissions per flight. Additional environmental benefits will come from alleviating congestion at and around airports by improving passenger flows (through predictability and single ticketing), from supportingencouraging access to /egress from airports using environmentally friendly means and from integrating vertiports for electric UAM vehicles.
• Capacity. Fully integrating the most congested airports into the ATM planning process, introducing tools that allow user-driven prioritisation based on real-time multimodal passenger constraint information, monitored and shared accurately at network level, will help reduce departure delay, while improving IFR movement numbers at these airports and ultimately IFR network throughput.
• Cost-efficiency. The data-sharing-powered network performance cockpit will enable increased predictability of traffic flows coupled with increased network flexibility and resilience. This in turn will help reduce en-route congestion and ANS costs. New data-sharing standards and systems will allow new ‘as a service’ businesses, creating more value for aviation, within an integrated transport system.
• Operational efficiency. Improved, accurate, customer-focused planning, including user-driven prioritisation, allows operators to customise and optimise every flight, balancing their individual constraints against those of the network, with a direct positive impact on additional gate-to-gate flight time, fuel-burn per flight, and operational costs from congestion and disruption. There will also be a positive impact on resilience thanks to data-sharing, increased knowledge and integrated network crisis management processes.
• Safety. Better integration of UAS, UAM and general aviation operations at airports and within TMAs will directly contribute to increased, seamless and hassle-free mobility while enhancing operational safety. Similarly, punctual, predictable, integrated ground transport to/from the airport will reduce passenger stress and contribute to reducing stress-related accidents.

To achieve the expected outcomes, all or some of the following should be addressed.

• Access to / exit from the airport. This refers to the development of digital platforms and services leveraging state-of-the-art technologies to enable a better door-to-door experience for passengers. Considering ATM as an integrated part of an intermodal transport system, this about sharing data between modes and collaborating better to optimise the performance of the overall transport system (R&I need: access to / exit from the airport: airports are obvious multimodal nodes for aviation and SWIM). It includes for example, the following features.
  • Real-time information exchange. This will give stakeholders (including mobility providers) an increased knowledge of the entire multimodal journey, which will enhance the reliability of multimodal journey planning, identifying potential access issues that could affect the punctuality of operations, alleviating congestion, mitigating regulatory constraints, etc.
  • Improved planning and cooperation. This will involve extended integration of ATM network planning (multi-slot swapping, aircraft operator-driven prioritisation processes etc.) and cooperation on enhanced collaborative airport performance planning and monitoring, enabling passengers to have a full picture of their journey and optimising their door-to-door time.
  • Extended CDM process. This will encompass specific stakeholder information requirements relating to elements of the multimodal journey, to be fully included in the AOP and NOP collaborative processes.
  • Use of AI. This will help optimise pre-screening of passengers and departure/arrival queues/sequences in order to optimise door-to-door journeys.
  • Integration of vertiports. Vertiports will be a crucial enabler for UAM, providing a safe and secure area for air taxi operators and people using air taxis. Their integration into airport operations and city-surface transport networks faces design, organisational, operational and safety challenges that need to be investigated and validated to facilitate operational implementation in a European city before 2027.
• Passenger experience at the airport. This refers to the development of digital platforms and services leveraging state-of-the-art technologies to improve the passenger experience inside the airport (R&I need: passenger experience at the airport). It will includes, for example, the following features.
  • ATM data-sharing for a seamless door-to-door passenger journey. This includes in particular the development of open application programming interfaces to share ATM data (e.g. updated flight departure/arrival data) with public transport systems and the demonstration of their value to passengers in terms of improving their door-to-door experience.
  • Digitalisation of passenger processes at the airport. This element includes the introduction of digital passenger processes at the airport for a seamless passenger experience and improved predictability of turnaround processes by reducing the uncertainty originated by current passenger processes. The scope may include digitalisation of security checks (e.g. video analytics with full and/or behavioural biometrics, walk-through body scanners, AI-powered queue management, facial recognition), digital border control (e.g. advanced automation processes integrated with check-in and security processes such as biometric pre-authentication), biometric support for a better and more predictable boarding process and development of mobile applications to support passenger travel to/from the airport and wayfinding at the airport to avoid late arrival or no-show at the gate.
  • Improved integration of landside and airside processes. Inclusion outputs from landside processes (passenger and baggage) to be used to improve the accuracy and predictability of airside operations.
  • Business intelligence and ML. These will be used to help airport stakeholders collaborate to align process and resource capacity with predicted demand to reduce queues.
  • Optimised intra-airport flow. This will reduce queuing for airport services and reduce walking distance for passengers, for fast and efficient boarding and disembarkation.
  • Improved mobility planning and common situational awareness. Smart airports, with landside and groundside fully integrated into the ATM network, will be based around connectivity and other technologies to improve operations and the user experience. This will include the integration of airport network planning and the timely exchange of surface network, airport and ATM network information.
• An integrated transport network crisis management process. This element will involve the development of digital platforms and services leveraging state-of-the-art technologies to enable coordination – when managing a crisis – between different modes of transport and a multitude of actors, including representatives of local and national authorities. The research should also include proposals for counter-measures based on the timely acquisition and sharing of information, and it should consider a broad set of threats affecting, directly or indirectly, aviation. A non-exhaustive list of threats would include volcanic ash dispersions, armed conflict, hazardous chemical events, spread of diseases / pandemic, earthquakes, flooding, major failure of a pan-European function and (massive) cyberattack (R&I need: an integrated transport network crisis management process).