Managing Airport Traffic Flow by Maximizing Data-Driven Decision-Making

Airport Problem Solving with Video Analytics

For travelers, nothing is more frustrating than long queues and wait times in an airport terminal: Whether embarking on the trip of a lifetime or a routine business trip, travelers increasingly expect a streamlined experience. This puts a tremendous amount of pressure on airport operations and security teams responsible for ensuring continuous traffic flow and minimal crowding within every terminal.  

Business intelligence is key for keeping airport executives informed in real time. Whether driving airport security, operations, or experience, these stakeholders can drive impactful change by mining meaningful insights from video analytics – technology that helps maximize video surveillance systems for data intelligence. 

Interested in learning more about the newest features and innovations in our comprehensive video analytics platform? Check out the 2024 M1 & R2 version releases! 

Optimizing Traffic Flow and Crowd Control 

A traveler’s experience begins when they enter the airport. Ideally, they would enter the airport at the entrance closest to the airline they are flying and where they need to check-in.  

However, in reality, most airports have multiple entrances and many lack sufficient signage to point hurried travelers in the right direction.  

With video data and airport entrance and exit analysis, an airport can assess the efficiency of each entry point – and whether it changes throughout a day, week, month or year. For example, there might be a correlation between faster traffic flow and a less-frequently-used entryway. Once identified, a manager can conduct more focused assessments to discover the root cause of this trend and potential remedies to make other doorways more effective. It could be as simple as updating signage or deploying more personnel to direct travellers to entrances and check in counters based on real-time traffic information.  

Within the terminal, crowd management is a critical objective for any airport operations team. Video analytics empowers operators with better situational awareness and continuous traffic tracking throughout all airport areas from the parking lots, throughout each terminal, and even down to the tarmac. By visualizing and analyzing video, operations management can understand bottleneck hotspots, identify crowding trends, and develop better strategies for combatting poor traffic flow and traveler experiences.  

Video data is a powerful tool for uncovering trends over time, but it can also help managers alleviate situations in real-time and prevent them from getting worse. By configuring rule-based real-time alerts, managers can be notified when an area is becoming crowded or security lines are extended past a certain point and can therefore quickly deploy more staff to remedy the situation. 

Streamlining Security Checkpoints 

No matter how big or small an airport, going through a security checkpoint is a guarantee. Security is also a spot likely to cause bottlenecks and hinder traffic flow. Video analytics is effective when it comes to streamlining airport security. Not only can video analysis tools help identify security incidents, such as suspicious behavior, but this technology can also provide insight on how to increase security screening efficiency.  

By analyzing video data from security checkpoints, decision-makers can identify the most and least efficient checkpoints and strategically redirect traffic, personnel, and infrastructure – both in real time to remedy a developing situation or in the long-term to ensure a consistent, positive traveler experience. Some causes of bottleneck issues at security checkpoints include:  

• Inadequate or underperforming staff  

• Unbalanced volumes of travelers 

• Poor signage or disproportionate direction to specific checkpoints 

The right questions and the right data can help inform impactful answers and ultimately increase security efficiency.  

Improving Airport Layouts 

A driving factor in positive traveler experience and better traffic flow is the layout of the terminal. By visualizing the property using video analytics-generated heatmaps airport property management can better assess where services, amenities and retail stores should be located.  

For example, consider if a video analytics heatmap shows a high volume of people around the restrooms on one side of the terminal, and a very low volume of people at the restrooms on the other side. Management could help balance restroom usage with better signage or ensure that bathrooms with more traffic are serviced and cleaned more regularly.  

Heatmaps can also demonstrate where travelers tend to spend time – and how long they tend to loiter in different airport areas. This information can help with understanding whether wait times for parking shuttles or queues for services are too long, driving decision-making to improve the experience.  

Creating a Visionary Traveler Experience 

Video data and intelligence can take the guesswork out of driving airport efficiency. Without powerful data and insights that video analysis can provide, airport operations, security, and experience decision-makers are left to either find solutions through trial and error or spend valuable time and resources by conducting audits and assessments.  

By utilizing a video analytics platform, airports can put efficiency at the forefront of their management strategies, extending the value of their video surveillance investments to deliver an inviting traveler experience.  

Learn more about the newest features and innovations in our comprehensive video analytics platform and learn how you can use them in your airport! Check out the 2024 M1 & R2 version releases! 

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in November 2021, and has been refreshed and updated for accuracy.