Aena has tiedup with Telefónica Empresas to launch ‘AenaMaps’, a map-based guidance tool which will assist passengers at all the stages of their journey from planning to the flight itself, with particular emphasis on the time they spend at the airport.
Telefonica said in a statement that the tool will show passengers their location, conduct searches and confirm movements on the map, guide them to a specific point in the airport, calculate the journey time or distance, and display the facilities’ services and points of interest such as boarding gates, shops, restaurants, toilets, etc.
The guide can be used at the airport on the Aena app for Android and iOS and will suggest the selected routes both visually and also by voice. The maps and the routes can additionally be viewed on Aena’s corporate website by choosing a starting point and a destination inside the airport.
The tool will gradually evolve to help passengers with reduced mobility and cater for accessibility needs while also providing other salient information such as real-time transit times in security checkpoints. The app will additionally be integrated with other location tools outside the airport to provide the complete route from anywhere. The service will initially be available at Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas Airport before being progressively rolled out at other airports in the network.
In addition to Telefónica Empresas, Aena has also teamed up with CartoDB, the world’s leading location intelligence platform, and Situm Indoor Positioning, a specialist in indoor location and navigation, to develop the app. The former has been involved in the cartographic enrichment of Aena’s airport maps/plans, route development and in the logic and coordination of the entire solution in general, while the latter has provided the technology components and geopositioning inside the airports.
Telefonica said this was one of the projects in the digitalisation process which Aena and Telefónica Empresas were jointly undertaking to deliver innovative solutions to passengers. The telecoms operator is supporting the airport manager’s Digital Transformation project as one of the mainstays in its Strategic Plan.
As part of this approach, Aena has kicked off an initiative to accelerate start-ups around the world, which dovetail with its strategic business areas. The call for proposals, which ends on October 14, 2020, will select five innovation and technology-based projects to be undertaken in airport infrastructures. The challenges are: Agility in procedures and travel to the airport; Passenger experience; Passenger communication; Sustainability, and Baggage as a whole.
Start-ups interested in joining the programme can register at www.aenaventures.com.