BACKGROUND
When examining current trends in aviation, there are many innovative initiatives underway intended to improve airports and the passenger experience through technology. New and emerging technologies have the potential to improve customer service, safety, and operational efficiency on the ground and in-flight and may play an important role in reshaping the industry in the future.
However, by its very nature, innovation and potential disruption by certain transformative technologies are dynamic and hard to pin down for in-depth research. Regardless, airport practitioners need to know what is on the horizon and how it may transform airport operations.
For this project, “transformative” is defined as the degree of disruption, when the amount of change is so different, lasting, and dynamic that airport practitioners face a significant challenge to adapt to the change. The degree of disruption is measured by the qualitative, quantitative, or relevant change to an individual’s experience. Moreover, “technologies” is defined as the practical application of technology (i.e., knowledge, applications, products, services, or tools). When combined, transformative technologies have the potential for significant impact on an individual’s experience in and around the airport (e.g., airport practitioner, tenant, or customer) and the potential to disrupt the current definition or delivery of products or services.
Given the dynamic nature of technological change, the airport industry would benefit from a recurring (i.e., periodic) report summarizing transformative technology news, innovation, and opportunities and itemizing and prioritizing those new technologies that have potential to impact airports and affected populations in the future. Each publication will update previous information and present the latest news so airport practitioners can stay up-to-date on innovative technology trends and new initiatives.
OBJECTIVE
The objective of this project is to develop content for three issues spanning 27 months of this new ACRP periodical (i.e., unformatted articles, summary text, charts, tables, infographics, and other visuals). ACRP will use this material to produce a recurring periodical report (such as a website or newsletter). Each issue will have the latest content and updates since the last issue was published, approximately 9 months earlier. Each issue shall originate with a systematic and thorough review and synthesis of all types of literature (e.g., books, peer-reviewed articles, and industry journals) on transformative technologies, from which the most relevant and compelling concepts will be extracted and annotated stories developed that will interest and inform the airport industry reader. The issue will include, at a minimum, a summary text and graphics with references for select technologies on timeline, cost, affected populations, degree of airport control or involvement, location on the airport, and level of effort.
