IT-driven air travel can be cool, comfortable

The future of air travel experience for passengers would open up a safer, faster and more productive scenario with the advent of check-in kiosks, WiFi access, biometric identification and RFID tags for baggage management.

The implementation of information technology in aviation would see to it that these features are put in place making air travel a pleasant experience, believe professionals.

This rosy picture of the future of air travel was part of a two-day national seminar organised here by the Institute of Engineers ( India), Thiruvananthapuram centre. The seminar titled 'New Horizons in Civil Aviation' discussed threadbare many a feature that would take flight soon in the country's aviation sector.

With infotech and IT-enabled services already beginning to play a major role in the sector, it has been seen that at least 50 percent of the airports globally have already deployed some form of self-service kiosks. The figure may go up to 75 per cent in the next two years, predicted a paper presented at the seminar. Similarly, it has been found that 33 percent of airports plan to deploy a biometric identification system for check-in and boarding in the next four years. Also, as many as 45 per cent of the airports around the globe plan to put into use RFID tags for baggage management by 2008. Besides, airports would also offer public access to WiFi network within the next two years, it is expected.

The seminar also held deliberations on hazard avoidance systems in civil aircraft. A paper presented on this topic said that the Flight Safety Foundation had identified rate of accidents were more during the approach and landing phase of the aircraft. It has also been found that the percentage rises during night and in adverse weather conditions, especially while carrying out non-precision approaches.

With the density in aircraft operations increasingly taking flight day by day , the need for installing different types of hazard avoidance systems were discussed. The paper also warned that human error had the greatest potential to adversely affect contemporary aviation safety.

The seminar also discussed in detail topics like trends in aircraft design, global navigation satellite systems , avionics systems for aircraft, international airport construction and the like. Earlier, Air Marshal S Y Savur, Air Officer Commanding in Chief, Southern Air Command, inaugurated the two-day seminar.