Recent spring holiday peaks have acted as unsuccessful load tests for the current state of both the airport infrastructure, as well as staffing at the various key airport processes such as check-in, security and ground handling. The forced lay off of personnel (and knowledge) during crisis time has left most airport companies and service providers with urgent and critical challenges, dealing with a sudden increase in capacity demands without having the sufficient number of staff available.
For the mid- and long-term, reshaping and monitoring human employment as part of the airport service seems to be inevitable. However, getting sufficient staff levels back is a though challenge and is not going to be solved in the short-term. That is, attraction, recruitment and training of airport personnel currently takes too much time to be of immediate help, and as a result, with current equipment setups and CONOPs, capacity gaps remain present. This is where operational balance should be regained.
Solutions to regain balance in the screening process.
So what other approaches, tools and solutions exist to minimize the capacity gap we face at airports today? We like to group potential solutions on a scale of time and therewith share the industry opinion that in the end, passenger screening checkpoints should gain in resilience. We therewith firmly believe that technology will enable us to replace human tasks in the near future.
Here is a list of solutions on the short-, mid- and long-term that will help airport managers and security checkpoint stakeholders in their current jobs.
1. Short term: Process Optimisation as a quick fix and efficiency enabler
For the very short term, we know that still a lot of potential is present in current processes and operations at a major part of airports and security companies. This includes CONOPs alterations, process improvements, gaining awareness and active training and coaching of newly hired security personnel. After all, it takes time and experience to perform at your best.
Start getting an accurate and thorough overview on security checkpoint operations to spot improvement potential for overall process efficiency. Start an act of regaining balance in every situation of operation, during, but also outside of peak hours.
Manual process data collection is an effective and accessible way towards the identification of passenger bottlenecks and determination of lost workloads in the checkpoint. Point FWD’s Checkpoint Insight Tool is a low-cost and easy tool focused at the collection of critical passenger flow data. Getting a frequent status quo of the process ensures to maintain control over critical KPIs that, on most airports, are not (yet) logged by machines or sensors. When combined with machine data, it really provides the actionable insight when to start steering.
Get your basics right. Whereas the situation in checkpoints has changed globally, so have the people. This especially applies to newly hired staff. Implementation (and discovery) of best practices may be of great help in order to get personnel on a steep learning curve towards a smooth and sustainable operation.
Point FWD’s Checkpoint Efficiency Assessment pin points efficiency gains in the process. Contact the team for more information.
2. Mid-term: Process alterations and robust monitoring and forecasting.
Looking beyond the upcoming summer and winter peaks, security managers and staff managers should equip themselves with tools to effectively manage passenger flows and real-time capacities, without the excessive staff numbers of today. In the end, automation plays a big role in gaining stability, forecasting and control, and the facilitation of real-time steering of operations in security checkpoints. Some specific directions for solutions include:
Keep a maintained focus on sustainable workloads and performance goals for security staff. Obtain stable methodologies for process alterations and baseline performance measures for the security process in detail, but also looking at work-loads of specific tasks, such as screening, recheck and divest. Are there CONOPs changes possible in specific windows of operation? Collect data, draw the hypotheses and start testing process changes
Solutions for real-time monitoring of passenger flows and asset utilisation become increasingly more important looking at the stability of processes and operational excellent, real-time, process organisation. Specific vendors, such as Point FWD partner GRASP Innovations, also help to increase predictability of future peaks. Airports should now more than ever bring in the power of technology and automation to replace repetitive tasks – such as access control.
Commence trial projects towards Automatic Prohibited Item Detection systems, to start studying practical process designs that can provide huge efficiency gains together with EDS algorithms. This might just be a game changer in Avsec screening in terms of operational excellence, but might also require a redesign of the security process as a whole. Advice here is to effectively prepare, design, test and monitor during a trial with adequate methods and tooling.
3. Long-term: Technology enablement and security checkpoint rethinking
We are on the verge of a technology revolution in aviation security screening. That is, discussions around the Open Architecture of systems gain in power and OEMs start to work more and more on strategies around the co-development of Avsec screening components. The introduction of Artificial Intelligence in detection capability and alarm resolution technology pave the way for a rethinking of the security checkpoints of today. Integrating more advanced technology in the checkpoint maybe a driving force to require other types of personnel as operator at the lane – primarily including technicians, hosts and secondary judgement.
We are here to support airport and security personnel.
Point FWD owns a core capability in the monitoring and optimisation of airport security processes and has developed a highly effective platform for its partners to collect process data, to analyse and identify bottlenecks and to quickly initiate and monitor effective change. Now is the time to start acting.