Airport to track passengers
New tags make RFID an affordable option for Manchester Airport
Manchester Airport is to revisit trials of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology despite previously ruling it too expensive, following the introduction of more affordable UHF tags.
The UK’s third largest airport is looking to use RFID to help boost retail sales by tracking passenger movements.
Manchester Airports Group head of business development Yemmi Agbebi says using tags in this way is more likely to provide a return on investment than by employing the technology for supply chain efficiency and baggage tracking.
‘We believe the new case is understanding passenger behaviour by tracking them throughout the airport,’ he said.
The airport completed a successful trial last year, asking passengers to wear an RFID tag on checking in and tracking them from one reader to the next, but decided it was too expensive to justify full rollout.
‘This informed us of when passengers arrived at security checks, and if numbers were too high we could open additional channels,’ said Agbebi.
Measuring the time spent at security could determine the most efficient processes, and that knowledge could help to maximise the time passengers spend in the retail area, he says.
A recent study showed that passengers spend 7p for every minute they spend in the retail area. If the airport could improve that by three minutes, the potential annual return is £2.3m.
Agbebi says the new trial of UHF 13.56MHz tags will also examine benefits such as preventing passengers from accessing restricted areas, staff identification and border security.
Peter Harrop, chairman of RFID analyst ID TechEx, says the introduction of a global UHF standard has brought down the cost of RFID tags, but it still presents challenges as UHF is affected by water in the human body and metal in luggage.
‘But this is an innovative application and I do not know of any other airports tracking and tracing passengers,’ he said.
‘The variety of uses is growing and the benefit it offers in retail is absolutely vital because more than 50 per cent of airport revenue can come from non-aviation sources,’ said Harrop.
‘RFID is also an enabling technology for security, queue reduction and baggage tracking.’
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Further reading
Virgin pilot leads way for RFID