UK. London Gatwick Airport has installed new technology which could assist retailers in making contact with potential customers.
Around 2,000 indoor navigation beacons have been positioned across the airport’s two terminals. They enable augmented reality wayfinding, a system which makes it easier for passengers to find their way around the airport.
The system, which Gatwick said was a world first for an airport, can be used by retailers and other third parties to detect proximity and send relevant offers or promotional messages, if the passenger has chosen to receive them.
Gatwick Airport Head of IT Commercial & Innovation Abhi Chacko said: “By providing the infrastructure we’re opening the door for a wide range of tech savvy airport providers, including our airlines and retailers, to launch new real-time services that can help passengers find their way around the airport, avoid missing flights or receive timely offers that might save them money.
“We are proud to be the first airport to deploy augmented reality technology and we hope that our adoption of this facility influences other airports and transport providers so that it eventually becomes the norm.”
The new technology, installed as part of Gatwick’s £2.5 billion transformation programme, is more reliable than GPS according to the airport. It enables ‘blue dot’ tracking on indoor maps, which in time can be used within a range of mobile airport, airline or third party apps. Passengers can also be shown directions in the camera view of their mobile device, making it easier to locate check in areas, departure gates, baggage belts and other airport services.
The new navigation technology is being integrated into Gatwick’s app. The airport is also in discussions with airlines to enable the indoor positioning and wayfinding tools to feature on their app services.
“No personal data will be collected by Gatwick although generic information on ‘people densities’ in different beacon zones may help to improve airport operations including queue measurement, streamlining passenger flows and reducing congestion,” the airport stated.
Through the system airlines could, with the consent of their passengers, send reminders on their airline app to late running passengers or view their location.
Gatwick said that battery-powered beacons kept logistical complexity and costs low, with deployment taking three weeks, followed by two months of testing and calibration.
The end-to-end ‘indoor blue dot’ service is managed by PointrLabs.
PointrLabs CMO Axel Katalan commented:
“As an ACI member advising on beacon installations around the world and as a company that has been involved in various airport projects from Asia to the USA, we are pleased to announce that Gatwick Airport will be the first airport with an end-to-end working system with incredible accuracy both in terms of blue-dot location and orientation.
“Our [system] enables battery-optimised, multiplatform and high performance positioning and other features such as 3D wayfinding through AR [augmented reality] and on-screen translation, all of which are now available to be used by Gatwick and their partners as simple as drag & drop.”
