Going places

It`s an ambitious plan, and ACSA`s IT and telecoms director Theunis Chamberlain is aware of that. He`s gritty and likeable thing of a visionary - and he speaks with confidence about what he`s already achieved (which is very impressive) and about how he and ACSA will make air travel throughout its ten South African airports as easy and safe as it can be.

"When people are travelling, they are stimulating business," he says, and while that might seem like an obvious sentiment, it`s something Chamberlain keeps in mind as he embarks on his not-very-modest master plan for SA`s airports to be technology role models.

Last month saw the introduction of the FlightCheck service, do-it-yourself check-in kiosks, at the Cape Town, Durban, Port Elizabeth and OR Tambo (Johannesburg International) airports. Thirty-six kiosks have already been installed, with plans afoot to increase this number to over 100 in the next few months.

Strapped in for the ride

But there are much bigger projects in the pipeline, Chamberlain tells iWeek. "The service-oriented architecture (SOA), enterprise resource planning and airport management centre projects carry a total value of about R500 million, over three years," he reveals.

Oracle and SAP were asked to tender (by mapping their solutions to ACSA`s requirements) for the enterprise resource planning component. The US-based software giant got the nod, beating its German counterparts. "I have to say, in aviation, it seems Oracle is the leader [in ERP solutions]," Chamberlain notes.

The Oracle e-Business suite was selected, and ACSA is now in final discussions with the implementation team, consisting of arivia.kom, IBM Consulting, Oracle Consulting, and Bula Solutions, having employed its own specialised 20-strong team of project managers and IT architects.

Chamberlain says this project will loosely connect architecture, meaning that when a new requirement comes along in future, it will be easy to assimilate into the systems.

"But it goes beyond simply changing the technology," he adds enthusiastically. "It`s about changing the culture." He envisions a shared service centre, where people who work on often-repeated processes can document their work and help each other by setting precedents and best work practices. A centre of excellence (for the non-repetitive tasks) should allow staffers to pool resources and improve efficiency.

Taking off

ACSA`s IT department was only formed in August 2001; before that it was just a dimension of the finance department. Chamberlain, who served in the engineering section initially, was closely involved in forming this IT division. He now has 1 800 people working under him, 850 of whom are based at SA`s biggest airport, OR Tambo International, and it`s here that his team`s achievements are most visible.

For starters, the number of CCTV cameras at OR Tambo alone has risen from 300 to 1 600 in those five years. A 300-terabyte storage area network houses all the recently-recorded footage.

Another fully IP-based innovation is the building management system, which monitors the general infrastructure and environment of the airport, including lifts, escalators and shopping areas. A technical helpdesk was established to respond to problems as quickly as possible.

Taking into account airline staff from over 50 airlines, airports authorities, governmental departments, police, customs officials, baggage handlers, security guards, maintenance crews, delivery drivers and cargo staff, there are about 22 000 people working at the airport. This made the recent upgrading of the control systems at the airport quite a task.

Chamberlain explains that OR Tambo has 600 `portals` (a portal can be a door, a gate, or a turnstile, for instance). Staff members now use two separate readers at these portals - a biometric one and a holographic card. Not only that, but the airport has also been zoned in a way that everyone`s access is restricted to the areas that they have to travel during normal daily duties - something he calls "designated routes".

In the future, biometrics could also be used to make air travellers` experiences faster, says Julian Thorrold, MD of IDtek (which installed the OR Tambo biometric readers).

"There`s now a readiness on the part of business travellers to exchange personal information for faster travel at the limited places where biometric systems are being used. Frequent flyers with British Airways from JFK to Heathrow can obtain a card that holds fingerprint images allowing them access to a special fast-track security lane.

"A similar system called Privium operates in Amsterdam`s Schiphol. Over 30 000 passengers have signed up to it, paying for membership, with their personal details stored on a government-connected database in exchange for quicker transit times."

We don`t have such initiatives yet, but ACSA has already piloted biometric check-in facilities.

Ending runaway baggage syndrome

Another project that is just about to start at various ACSA airports, valued at R100 million, involves bag-tagging and bag-reading technology to make sure your luggage never gets lost. "It`s called baggage reconciliation," says Chamberlain. He seems aware of the fact that, out of all the possible air-travel annoyances, losing one`s luggage must be the worst.

"The bag must not depart without you," he says. "Every time you check in at an airport desk, it sends the bag tag number to a database, checks what flight you are going to, and tag readers make sure that the bag goes to the same place as you."

It should prove especially useful, he adds, for "transfer bags" destined to automatically hop over to the next destination, even though their owners sometimes have to get off at the "stop-over" airport.

But ACSA is not just trying to stamp out the possible inconveniences assumed with air travel; it is also looking to actively make the whole process much easier than it is currently. Online boarding passes are being looked at, adds Chamberlain. There`s no word, yet, on when these services might become available.

Mark Clifford, MD of local IT company Realtime, specialising in the air travel industry, feels that technology will fundamentally be changing the way people plan and book their vacations. "Travel agents, on the retail side, are the ones that are going to really lose out," he says.

Increased technology reliance at South Africa`s airports may not have a great impact on the cost of air travel for consumers, but it can certainly go a long way in making the checking-in and boarding process less harrowing, and provide us all with extra confidence from enhanced security.