Following an initial award earlier this year for a technology-based system to measure passenger wait times at U.S. airports, SITA has begun to deliver the automated wait time technology with the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) for laboratory and field testing, a company official tells TR2.
In February the TSA awarded Switzerland-based SITA’s U.S. division a potential $48.1 million contract for the queue management system that will time how long a person stands in an airport checkpoint line, allowing the agency to dynamically manage the lines to speed passenger flow and boost the efficient use of its security officers that man the checkpoints (TR2, Feb. 15). The laboratory testing was scheduled to begin this month with the field testing expected to begin in late May or early June and last for about two months, says Paul Houghton, president of SITA in the Americas.
For the project SITA is partnered with Denmark-based Bluelon, a developer of Bluetooth-based tracking technology. The two companies agreed to partner early last year to offer Bluelon’s IQueue real-time passenger tracking and queue management to airports worldwide.
For TSA the automated wait time technology includes passive sensors for data collection and a proprietary algorithm that collects a Bluetooth signal and measures the flow of individuals through the checkpoint using a PC-based server and a 46-inch flat screen display. The technology relies on passengers carrying Bluetooth communications devices and it can distinguish if it’s a passenger or not, Houghton says.
The queue management system, at least in the initial design for TSA, will measure from when a person enters the line until the exit at the back-end of the screening process, at which point the signal disengages and no additional tracking of an individual is done, Houghton says.
The contract with TSA is the first time SITA has worked with the agency, Houghton says.
Bluelon’s system is already installed in five airports in Britain as well as in Frankfurt in Germany. SITA is currently installing the technology at airports in the Americas, Asia-Pacific and Europe, the company says.
Houghton says that some airports are using the technology for to understand traffic patterns for commercial applications such as retail. In the longer term in the U.S., he believes the technology will also be used for additional applications beyond TSA measuring passenger wait times, including enabling passengers to know what their wait times will be and where the queues are shorter. Airports, not TSA, will pick up the additional applications, he says.
The $48.1 million contract is meant to cover 179 airports and 440 checkpoints, Houghton says. Once testing is completed, decisions on how and where to rollout the system will be made, he adds.
The initial deployments will just be the “first step toward and expanded set of benefits,” Houghton says.