The aviation industry has experienced soaring passenger traffic in the last fewdecades and airport operators and industrybodies have developed dramatically in order to accommodate the growing volume. The airport environment is loaded withcomplexities that have to be dealt with on adaily basis. Managing all these complexities is a serious challenge, in terms of safety andsecurity, human resources, physical assets andreal estate considerations among many otherissues, as there is no room for delays or errors,as illustrated in a recent SITA paper2.

‘Smart Airports’A recent study conducted at the IT University

of Copenhagen has focused on the ‘SmartAirport’ concept; seeing that the eco-systemcomprises enormous amounts of technicalityand know-how that are heavily interconnected.The entire aviation industry is entering a newera of digitisation, forcing practitioners tochange traditional working methods intomodern practices. In accordance withnumerous articles the study was mainlyconceived from three angles. First was from a technology perspective, supported bycommon use/shared services collaborationwithin the airport domain. Secondly, it lookedat the challenge from a business perspective, in terms of increasing revenues by optimisingcustomer services, continued business model

development, and substantial operational cost savings, hence more budget space forfuelling innovation projects. Lastly, from atraveller’s point of view, it looked at providingnecessary information throughout the end to end passenger journey, with the intention of achieving a convenient and seamless travel experience.

The term ‘Smart Airport’ is applied bynumerous noticeable vendors that have beenand still are operating in this field for sometime, and has been described differently fromone vendor to another. However, an academicdefinition is yet to be established. For thisreason I took up the challenge by defining theconcept from an academic perspective as:

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8 Volume 19 · Issue 2 · 2015 www.internationalairportreview.com

In research based upon field study and interviews undertaken at airports in Europe and the Middle East1, Sabrina Abdullah, Lecturer at IT University ofCopenhagen proposes new ways of managing and operating modern airports to enhance IT governance, knowledge creation and the passenger experience.

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How holistic managementimproves the seamlesstravel experience

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‘The concept is simply about attempting to

balance creativity with analytics in today’s

data driven world, and how a corporation as

large as the airport industry, is going about

getting deeper collaboration across its

businesses to deliver an enhanced customer

experience and greater value.’

The study was focused on how to adapt novelthinking in terms of conceiving and integrating‘business’ and ‘technology’ as one entity and notseparate aspects of airport operations. In orderto be able to detect and manage the addressedissues, an academic matrix was selected. The matrix has been developed by Ross & Weilfrom MIT Sloan Management3. It is a recognisedframework among academics and to a much lesser degree among today’s practitioners, and is named ‘IT Governance on One Page’ (Figure 1).

The matrix consists of five key IT governance decisions and severalgovernance archetypes. Depending on the input of the managers, the matrix will display either a centralised, hybrid or decentralisedgovernance structure. This simple framework can be utilised as avaluable exercise for organisations, seeing that it optimises ITgovernance (ITG) in practice and enhances the communication withinthe corporation about ITG. However, to obtain efficiency by this tool it isimportant to identify where (archetypes) and by whom (decision domain)various IT related decisions are taken within the organisation.

Moreover, the outcome would be measured towards theorganisation’s business strategy and reveal if the present ITG is the most appropriate. As an analogy, one can argue that ITG in a companyresembles the cockpit in an aircraft, the senior managers and executivesare the pilots on board and employees are the travellers. From this placeeverything is controlled, decided, navigated and communicated.

The importance of IT governanceSubsequently, one can question why ITG is significant for seamless traveland passenger experience now more than ever? Well, from a traveller’sperspective one couldn’t care less on what platform systems operate on,where, how and by whom. Passengers’ utmost priority is that they areupdated with all relevant changes related to their journey and as a result,evade stress and make it on time for their flight. One could also arguethat the evolution of technology and trends have urged several industriesto rethink their practices, seeing that technology has been recognised asa game changer for several industries, including aviation2.

To avoid disappointed and unhappy travellers, airport managementhas to make sure that decision rights and overall processes are sharedand assigned to the right staff. A well designed decision making structure

along with process alignment must also be formally communicated. This will facilitate seamless processes that will influence travellers in apositive way. In order to obtain good practices for coming ITG,management requires profound insights of daily activities and know-howprior to any recommendation for any ‘ideal’ ITG for aviation use.

Airports are distinct entities that are measured on performance andprofit, this means they are not very different from traditional companies – chief executives, board members and shareholders closely monitorrevenue and capacity growth as well as operational costs. The studyengaged roughly 10 airport operators (main hubs) in order to understandthe challenges aviation encounters on a daily basis, with the aim of

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www.internationalairportreview.com Volume 19 · Issue 2 · 2015 9

Figure 1: IT governance matrix, adapted from ‘IT Governance on One Page’3© 2004 MIT Sloan Center for Information Systems Research

Managers must accept and understand that ‘businessas usual’ is not applicable any longer, seeing that themarket surrounding us, is changing with high speed

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getting closer to shape and capture the idealITG structure. The partici pating airports werevery diverse in their conditions, meaning thatsome were in transition to ‘Smart Airport’status and others were ‘done’ implementingthe components of concept.

The results of the survey did indeeddisclose evident diversity between the ones thathave implemented the concept, and the onesthat are going through the process. Theoutcome revealed to a certain degree twodistinct patterns. Firstly, airports that have notyet implemented ‘Smart Airport’ componentsor are in transition, have a very centraliseddecision making layout (decisions taken by topmanagement) and decentralised IT architecture (multiple platforms andinfrastructures), marked as red crosses onFigure 1 (page 9). Whereas, airports embracingthe ‘Smart Airport’ ideology have in most casesdecentralised decision making structures(decision taken locally) and centralised ITarchitecture (shared platform/common use),marked as green crosses.

It is worth mentioning that the conceptadvocates for ‘one version of the truth’, user-friendliness, operational excellence and proactivity in terms of introducing newbusiness models to meet future demands.Additionally, some of the contributors didexperience cost reduction in relation tooperation and maintenance budgets, due toshared expenses by all involved stakeholders.Hence, revenue will eventually be recorded inthe long-term, as more focus is navigatedtowards business and innovation rather thanon operations and maintenance.

Individual requirementsHowever, it is hard to suggest an ideal ITG for

‘Smart Airports’. Scholars’ advice is to learnfrom the efforts of others. Scholars also suggest that effectiveness is obtained throughorganisational structure and strategicobjectives. The ‘Smart Airport’ concept is in thepreliminary phase and there is much to learnprior to any qualified judgment on an idealdesign. Suppose managers follow scholars’advice in order to approach the ideal ITG. One way of execution is through knowledgecreation. Eminent Japanese professors Ikujiro Nonaka and Hirotaka Takeuchi4 define

organisational ‘knowledge creation’ as: “the capacity of the company as a whole tocreate new knowledge, disseminate itthroughout the organisation and embody it in its products, services and systems.”Nonaka suggests knowledge creation within an organisation is vital due to market diversities, rapid development oftechnologies and expansion as well as market competition.

Additionally, Nonaka5 argues that in orderto become innovative, it is important tobecome knowledgeable (fundamental asset).

However, being knowledgeable is not sufficient in today’s market conditions – being adaptable is equally important. If an airport operator can orchestrateknowledgeability and adaptability then the company would achieve a competitiveedge in comparison with its counterparts. ITG effectiveness and success are based upon in-depth knowledge of the workingenvironment; hence one should notundervalue the employees’ skills andexperience as their individual knowledge can add value to the company’s knowledge as a whole. As the saying goes: ‘experience is the best teacher’.

I would like to conclude this article bystating the importance of cross collaborationmanagement among aviation bodies aiming todeliver a unique passenger experience.However, to make it a reality, managers mustaccept and understand that ‘business as usual’is not applicable any longer, seeing that themarket surrounding us, is changing with highspeed – thanks to modern technology. We must acknowledge that human resourcespossess scarce value that should be unfoldedand compiled into e.g. new business models.At the end of the day airports resemble regularcompanies: they suffer from bad performanceand flourish on excellent revenues.

Finally, if you suspect your company isembracing a vague ITG, I invite you to utilisethe matrix above and discover your current‘look’ – try not to be too disturbed by theresults. Better safe than sorry.

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References1. Abdullah, S (2014). Collaboration and Decision making.

Unpublished Master Thesis.

2. SITA (2014). Towards 2020 and beyond. Available from:www.sita.aero/sectors/airports/intelligent-airport,Accessed 20-4-2014.

3. Weil, P, Ross, JW (2004). IT Governance on One Page.Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT Sloan Management.

4. Nonaka, I & Takeuchi, H (1995). The knowledge-creatingcompany. New York: Oxford University

5. Nonaka, I (1991). The Knowledge- Creating Company.Harvard Business Review, 69(6), pp. 96-104.

Sabrina Abdullah is a Lecturer andAssistant Lecturer at De MontfortUniversity and IT University ofCopenhagen within Management,Strategy and Technology. She hasmore than 18 years of workingexperience in the latest seamlesstravel assessment and business

model innovations for TAV Holding in Turkey andwas a speaker at the Airport IT&T Conference 2014.She has a Master of Science (E-business) from ITUniversity and the Copenhagen Business School,and a Bachelor degree (Business Administration)from De Montfort University, Leicester.

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international airport review conference

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