EU to Reduce Air Passenger Journey Time by 1 Hour

Press release • Launch of a New H2020 European project • 13 July 2015•

PASSME: Personalised Airport Systems for Seamless Mobility and Experience Project to Deliver Real Time Saving for Passengers

13 July 2015: European experts in the fields of aviation, transport, interior design and communications will work together with academia to reduce passenger waiting times by 1 hour, through one of the EU’s newest projects’- PASSME, where the Institute of Communication and Computer Systems-ICCS is actively participating as a partner. This 4, 9 € million project  is funded by the EU’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme and will be implemented by 12 European partners from 7 European Countries in a period of 36 months.  PASSME innovative technologies will be piloted in Hamburg (Germany) and Schiphol Airports (The Netherlands).

PASSME Group Photograph June 2015 TUD NL

                                                                                                                Figure 1. PASSME partners during the KoM on June 2015

The global market forecast 2013 – 2032 of Airbus anticipates that air traffic will grow at 4.7% annually resulting in an increase in the number of air passengers passing through airports. Consequently there is a need for new innovative solutions which will increase the comfort and speed of air travel for all passengers. Stakeholders including airlines and airports will also benefit from the application of the project results.

PASSME innovations aim to reduce the passenger travel and navigation time from the entrance of the airport of departure to leaving the arrival airport by 60 minutes. This will be achieved by integrating information between all stakeholders and transforming airport and aircraft operations and interiors to make the passenger journey times more comfortable and seamless.

The overall ambition of the PASSME project is to achieve the following high level targets:

  • Faster luggage drop off and collection (30 minutes).
  • Reducing queues at key touch points through forecasting and capacity adaptations (10 minutes).
  • Smart boarding systems (10 minutes).
  • Reducing buffers due to increased predictability (10 minutes).
  • Provide passengers with continuous access to timely information in order to forecast demand.
  • Improve the quality of experience for at least 70% of passengers throughout the door to door experience.

At the end of this project which is due to end in May 2018, PASSME will hope to have achieved the following breakthroughs:

  • A real time passenger centric system for managing passenger flows.
  • A passenger independent system for managing luggage flows.
  • Radically re-designed passenger centric airport and airplane processes and facilities.
  • A personalised device and smartphone application.

A Community of Practitioners (CoP) will also be established, including stakeholders and end-users (from different domains) including airports and airlines. This will give stakeholders the opportunity to give feedback on the development of the PASSME system that will benefit passengers and airports (by reducing bottle necks).

Within PASSME, ICCS has a two-fold role. On the one had ICCS will be leading the development of a personalised device for allowing the passenger to be kept informed of all the aspects of his/her journey, including navigational information in the airport and possible delays, and also for providing passenger centric information back to the PASSME backbone system. On the other hand ICCS will develop an indoor localisation service, to provide location information to the PASSME system, allowing it to make accurate forecasts of possible delays. ICCS will have a major role also in the integration of the overall system and on the testing of the final solution. ICCS will also assist in dissemination and security related management.

For further information on PASSME and about the work of ICCS in the framework of this project please contact Dr. Angelos Amditis, Research Director of ICCS, Head of I-SENSE Research Group (email: a.amditis@iccs.gr; tel: +30 210 7721663). 

Find the full press release here in both EN and GR

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