Last Friday saw the conclusion of the Malaga Aviation Forum (MAF) International Congress, organised by AERTEC Solutions, an engineering and consultancy firm specialised in aeronautics. Fifty experts from the airport industry participated in this international event to discuss the implementation of the latest technological innovations in the operation of terminals in ways that are completely changing the current concept of what an airport is. The participants came from different countries, including the United States, Ireland, France, Italy, Lebanon, Ghana, the United Kingdom, Germany, Portugal and Colombia, in addition to Spain.
The MAF brought together 50 international experts for two days to discuss how new technologies applied to the airport industry are changing the passenger experience.
The agenda of the MAF focused specifically on the transformation of the passenger experience at airports, mainly thanks to the implementation of new technologies. ICTs (Information and Communications Technologies) play a crucial role in this regard and seek to interact with travellers to make their time in the airport more enjoyable. These new technological trends not only have the objective of improving the functioning of the terminals (security control, checking baggage and boarding), but also to turn the passengers’ time at the airports into another aspect of their trip.
Could the airport become a destination in itself? This was one of the discussions developed during the International Congress. The so-called “Wow effect“, or the generation of a lasting, positive impact on travellers during their stay in airports, was addressed by Phil Hettema and Anthony Pruett, of the Hettema Group, one of the leading companies in this field. Ismael Ordóñez, Project Director of Ferrovial Aeropuertos, Diego Llorca and Fernando Mosquera of Aena Internacional, Horacio Rossi and Lee Ebbutt, of the company Mott MacDonald, Lorenzo Di Loreto, of Munich International Airport, Daniel Trageser, Project Manager of the Fraport Group, and Michael Martin, Senior Vice President of Technical Services at DAA International, completed the programme of talks and the round table at the MAF.
This Forum also served to introduce the new El Dorado II airport, in Bogotá (Colombia), soon entering the construction phase in which AERTEC Solutions is participating. The consultants who are leading this project, present at the MAF, shared some ideas for improving the passenger experience that will help operators to better understand the main objectives of this project.
Also under analysis were other airports in Europe, the United States and the Middle East that are already focusing on the idea of the Airport of the Future and which seek to be more than mere transit hubs. The increase in non-aeronautical revenues at airports and the optimisation of operating costs (OPEX) were among the other issues addressed by the attendees of the Malaga Aviation Forum.
The auditorium at the Pompidou Centre in the city of Malaga hosted the Malaga Aviation Forum. This was the second edition of the International Airport Congress, which last year was also organised by AERTEC Solutions, and was held in the same place. Last year the Congress’s main theme was the public-private partnership model (also known as PPP or P3), which has been consolidated as a highly successful operating model for airports in recent years.
AERTEC Solutions is an engineering and consultancy firm with over 20 years of experience and with references at more than 130 airports across 40 countries. Today, it is one of the main companies specialised in airport architecture.
