4 Ways Video Analytics Optimizes the Travel Experience in Airports

The Gift Travelers Really Need This Holiday Season

Nothing kills the cozy feeling of the holidays like airport chaos this time of year. Add in soaring ticket prices, staffing shortages, and regular travel disruptions to the standard travel bustle and even the seasoned traveler is questioning if braving travel during this season is worth it. However, airports are aware of their formidable challenges, and are turning to technology solutions like intelligent video analytics to give travelers what they really need. From security and crowd control to improved layout and staffing optimization, check out these 4 ways video analytics optimizes the travel experience in airports during the holidays and beyond:

1. Traffic and Crowd Control:

   Long, unruly queues are by far one of the most frustrating aspects of traveling during the holidays, and airports are leveraging video analytics solutions to mitigate this frustration. Intelligent video analytics can detect, extract, and classify objects in video, as well as track or “count” the number of objects in a camera view or that have passed through a pre-defined area. Airport Management teams can use this data to assess trends, understand historical patterns, and respond to situational changes in the environment as they occur.

For example, an airport can leverage common path and flow statistics to understand where bottle necks occur in a traveler’s journey from parking or drop-off areas all the way through to the gate. Once bottlenecks are identified, airport management can add appropriate signage or assign additional personnel to redirect traffic. These same data points can also be used to trigger real-time alerts when crowd formations are detected so security can determine how to keep traffic moving. Video analytics can further empower proactive, strategic planning by providing data-driven insights after a crowding incident takes place. Key stakeholders can draw conclusions about what went wrong and decide how it can be prevented in the future by utilizing focused video investigation and business intelligence dashboards.

2. Staff Optimization:

   While staffing is typically increased for the holiday season to combat overcrowding, simply employing more manpower isn’t effective, regardless of the time of year, if they aren’t positioned and integrated based on actual need. With better long-term intelligence and real-time situational awareness, airport managers can direct staffing and services within different terminals to accommodate known trends, prevent crowding, and plan for contingencies and peak travel days. In short, intelligent video analytics arms airport management with data to both predictively hire and proactively deploy additional staff. It can also be used for maximizing efficiencies around maintenance and cleaning by empowering managers to create cleaning schedules based on actual facility usage.

3. Improved Airport Layout:

   Beyond driving efficiency for travelers, intelligent video analytics can and should be used to gather crucial business intelligenceto effectively utilize space and improve the traveler experience. Managers can view heatmaps to quantify the amount of visitor traffic in various areas of a terminal and make informed decisions for optimal layout and service, staff, or kiosk placement. By triggering real-time notifications for crowd and queue formations and uncovering inefficiencies through long-term reporting, airports can optimize site layout for retail and dining offerings, while also leveraging accurate visitor statistic data to demonstrate the value of different properties to tenants and ensure a positive visitor experience throughout the terminal.

Furthermore, while travelers are somewhat of a captive audience at an airport, that doesn’t mean all tenants are automatically successful. For example, flight delays mean travelers have more time to move away from the gate to browse a shop or grab a bite to eat. Video analytic data can highlight footfall, crowding and dwell times, which helps an airport make decisions about where to place tenant business advertisements and draw travelers to other areas of the terminal. Video analytics data provides deep insights about customer behavior that can be used to enhance marketing and layout strategy to ultimately enhance the traveler’s airport experience.

4. Streamlining Security:

   Although security is of the utmost importance to airports, balancing public safety and preventing traffic bottlenecks at security checkpoints can be a major tension for airport decision-makers. Intelligent video analytics provide data-backed answers to overcome these hurdles. For instance, at an airport security checkpoint, agents can leverage video data to understand if lines are moving at the same pace; if speed is impacted by the staff on duty; if travelers are effectively using the designated reorganization areas following security checks; and more. Video analytics provides concrete answers to these questions so management can make sure that people are being directed optimally, that staff is working effectively, and that security checks are being performed thoroughly and efficiently. In this way, video analytics has the power to connect travelers with the airport’s priority for safety, by reducing the friction often caused by the experience.

The Gift that Keeps on Giving

Airports are always juggling a complex set of challenges as they balance necessary security measures with the experience expectations of their travelers. Intelligent video analytics not only bolster and enhance the effectiveness of existing security procedures, but it also provides vital business and operational intelligence that supports travel experience improvements. Implementing changes of this scope is no easy feat, but the first step to overcoming airport challenges is unlocking the power of existing resources with video analytics: the gift travelers really need this holiday season.