Air traffic is back – + 12% of flights from 12 to 26 May, + 39% from 26 May to 9 June – and so the airports are once again at risk of chaos. In fact, the pandemic imposes further controls and prevention measures at airports; according to IATA (the International Air Transport Association) this means that with only 30% of pre-Covid traffic, the time required for the procedures before departure and the waits already reach almost 3 hours. Which can reach 5.5 with 75% of trades or 8 with 100%. The solution is digitalization: thanks to technology, checks – including health data – can begin when the passenger is still at home and the journey to the airport can be automated, minimizing contacts and the risk of hitches.
“Only in this way – explained Sergio Colella, president Europe of SITA, the supplier of technology for air transport, during the round table ‘Italy returns to fly with technology‘ – the air transport industry will once again regain the trust of passengers, exhausted by a difficult year, allowing operators to manage the growing demand and contain costs “.
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Not only that: with the approach of the summer holidays, the progress of Covid-19 vaccines and the upcoming introduction of the Green Pass, in Italy air passengers are destined to grow. According to Eurocontrol data, while remaining at around -50% compared to 2019, as at 20 June the country ranked fourth in Europe in terms of number of flights, immediately after Spain, Germany and France. An increase driven by leisure and domestic flights and by young people, which is estimated to lead to reaching pre-Covid volumes by 2023.
“Eurocontrol confirms that health security measures have actually reduced the capacity of airports which has decreased in percentages ranging from 25 to 40%. This gap must be bridged with technology, ”said Colella. “The technology will be able to support the sector in five key areas: the digitization of health records; the automation of passenger services, which are enabled from mobile and become touchless, both at the airport and in flight; collaboration between operators for more agile operations at low costs; intelligent planning to make air transport more sustainable. The pandemic has already accelerated the digitization of processes and redefined priorities: according to the data collected by the SITA Air Transport IT Insight survey, in 2020 84% of airlines and 89% of airports have planned investments for touchless solutions; another focus is on automation: 79% of airlines plan to implement self-service terminals for boarding baggage; 71% of the airports intend to use them for border controls ”.
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