Six years after construction started in 2002, Heathrow's
Terminal 5 will open this month. The building has been designed
around technology, and British Airways hopes innovative use of IT
will help lead to a better experience for passengers.
BA and the airport's owner, BAA, have worked together on the
project, each developing different systems. None of the technology
is new, but the way it is being implemented is unique, according to
BA's CIO, Paul Coby.
"Terminal 5 is about putting proven systems and proven processes
into a new building. It will be the most technologically advanced
airport in the world," he said.
British Airways wants 80% of passengers to
check in online or using one of 96 self-service kiosks at the
entrance hall of the building. Passengers can check in quickly by
leaving their bags in fast bag drops behind the kiosks.Their
boarding passes contain a bar code holding information such as
which flight the passenger is on, and whether they have enough time
to get to the boarding gate.
Domestic and international passengers will share the same
departure lounge, raising possible immigration concerns that
international passengers could swap boarding cards with domestic
passengers and enter the UK without going through immigration.
To avoid this, BAA is using a biometric system developed by
Atkins Advantage Software called Pass at the departure gates.
Domestic passengers will provide a fingerprint and photo at the
security gate. The Pass system will compare the fingerprint at the
boarding gate with a record held on the database to ensure it is
the same person. BAA says it will hold the biometric data for no
more than 24 hours.
BA hopes a system called Trip will improve the number of flights
leaving the airport on time. It allows flight dispatchers to record
information on a flight, such as its position and destination
electronically, using a digital pen to write on plastic "paper".
The pen transmits data through the Vodaphone mobile network to a
third-party application running on a BA server. The system makes
the flight's status available to airport staff, through a web
browser interface, on BA PCs. The system is quicker because
dispatchers can now do their paperwork on the airfield, instead of
having to return to the office.
BA and BAA hope the new baggage system will improve BA's record
on losing bags.
The barcode system uses
2D barcodes and scanners can be used to find out where a bag is
meant to be going. The main difference with this system, officials
say, is that it will now work efficiently. "Before, the technology
was crammed into buildings that were too small for it," a BAA
spokesman said.