Unit 14 Speeding up Air Traffic

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 418.

The newcomputer system that we have installed handles 3 areas of need for passengers -flightinformation, passenger check-in and duty-free sales. First flight information. Over 50 visual display boards have been installed inside the airport — in the main concourse, in thearrival and departure lounges, at arrival and departure gates, and in the baggage collectionareas. This information is also repeated on the airport's closed-circuit TV system. Thecharacters on the boards are generated electronically, and therefore we can generateboth standard flight information and non-standard messages. After the departure of a flight the details are automatically taken off the boards. Each message is composed of a matrixof small holes. Over each hole there is a metallic disc. A character is thus formed from back-projectedlight shining through the required holes, after the discs have been removed.This system is much more flexible and reliable than the alternative flap system.

Secondly,passenger check-in. Our new system represents a move away from individual airlinecheck-in to integrated check-in. We have 14 check-in points along the whole of one side of themain concourse. And a passenger can go to any check-in point.

Finally,our duty-free shop is in the departure lounge. When a passenger walks into the shop, hecan select from a wide range of goods. Each item on sale includes the price and stocknumber, coded onto the price tag. At the point-of-sale terminal the data is read by moving theprice identification bar code across a light beam, and the terminal produces a 3-part receipt.Onecopy goes to the customer; one to the shop; and one to Customs. The shop's datais stored on disk, and then sent to head office for processing.

So a passenger can see his flight details on our new visual display boards, check-in at any ofour new check-in points, and go to the duty-free shop, where he can select from a wide range of goods. Then he can go out of the shop and into the lounge until he sees a departure message on the visual display board. And it's all possible as a result of our new computer system.