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Fraport to Deploy FlightAware Predictive Technology at Frankfurt Airport

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Fraport AG will begin using real-time predictive runway arrival times, so called ‘ELDTs’ (Estimated Landing Times) delivered via FlightAware’s Firehose feed as an additional data source in the further optimization of airport operations at their home base of Frankfurt Airport. Fraport is one of the leading managers in the global airport business with activities at 30 airports worldwide. Offering the world’s largest flight tracking data platform, FlightAware is an industry leader in digital aviation solutions. The partnership gives Fraport access to precise, predicted runway arrival times, aircraft positions and flight status from FlightAware.

Operations at Frankfurt airport
Operations at Frankfurt airport

FlightAware’s ELDTs are optimized by machine-learning models, which are the premier product of the company’s state-of-the-art predictive technology program announced earlier this year. The models are based on statistical analysis of flight tracks and timestamps of hundreds of thousands of flights and are capable of identifying the key influencing factors determining the prediction of flight events in real-time. Fraport will integrate the data into their operational tools and analytical platforms to optimize airfield efficiency and ground personnel allocation at Frankfurt Airport.


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“FlightAware’s innovative predictive technology will take Fraport’s operational excellence to the next level,” said Dr. Pierre Dominique Prümm, Fraport AG’s executive board member for aviation and infrastructure. “We are gaining a powerful real-time tool for advancing our Frankfurt Airport operations – benefitting both our airlines and passengers. Ultimately, we are reinforcing our commitment to ensure all passengers have a ‘good trip’ via Frankfurt Airport,” stressed Prümm.

With more direct routes than any other airport in the world, Frankfurt Airport plays a critical role in connecting passengers traveling through Europe. For the current summer timetable, the airport is served by 94 passenger airlines flying to 306 destinations in 98 countries worldwide. A total of 137 intercontinental destinations are available via Frankfurt – underscoring its role as a leading hub in the global air transportation system. In addition, Frankfurt Airport is handling an average of 1,500 flights per day – more than any other European airport.

“Traditionally, our data has been used to understand past or present events. Fraport’s use of our ELDTs is an important step for us and demonstrates our ability to predict future events,” said Daniel Baker, FlightAware Founder and CEO. “This will undoubtedly have a positive impact on the more than 70 million passengers traveling through Frankfurt Airport each year.”

FlightAware is a digital aviation company and operates the world’s largest flight tracking and data platform. With global connectivity to every segment of aviation, FlightAware provides over 10,000 aircraft operators and service providers as well as over 12,000,000 passengers with global flight tracking solutions, predictive technology, analytics, and decision-making tools.

FlightAware receives data from air traffic control systems in over 45 countries, FlightAware’s network of ADS-B ground stations in 195 countries, Aireon global space-based global ADS-B, and datalink (satellite/VHF) via every major provider, including ARINC, SITA, Satcom Direct, Garmin, and Honeywell GoDirect.

FlightAware’s HyperFeed® engine seamlessly fuses thousands of real-time, global data sources with FlightAware’s proprietary AI models and algorithms. Leveraging this data with FlightAware’s powerful, intuitive, responsive, and reliable web-based interfaces and APIs yields the world’s most comprehensive, capable, and useful flight tracking and digital aviation data platform.

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One of the leading players in the global airport business, Fraport AG offers a wide range of operational and management solutions based on over 90 years of aviation expertise. Fraport’s portfolio of companies spans four continents with activities at 30 airports worldwide. In business year 2018, the Fraport Group generated sales of €3.48 billion and profit of about €506 million. More than 176 million passengers used airports around the world in which Fraport has more than a 50 percent stake during 2018. In its Mission Statement, Fraport places the focus on customers. The Group’s commitment to ensuring a “good trip” to all passengers and travelers is also reflected in the corporate slogan: “Gute Reise! We make it happen”. This commitment applies to all of Fraport’s business activities and services both at Germany’s largest aviation hub in Frankfurt and the Group’s airports worldwide.

At its Frankfurt Airport (FRA) home base, Fraport welcomed more than 69.5 million passengers and handled about 2.21 million metric tons of cargo (airfreight and airmail) in 2018. In Europe, Frankfurt Airport ranks first in terms of cargo tonnage and is the fourth busiest for passenger traffic. For the current summer timetable, FRA is served by 94 passenger airlines flying to 306 destinations in 98 countries worldwide. A total of 137 intercontinental destinations are served from FRA in the 2019 summer schedule – underscoring Frankfurt’s role as a leading hub in the global air transportation system.

Frankfurt Airport City has become Germany’s largest job complex at a single location, employing approximately 81,000 people at some 450 companies and organizations on site. Almost half of Germany’s population lives within a 200-kilometer radius of the FRA intermodal travel hub – the largest airport catchment area in Europe. FRA also serves as a magnet for other companies located throughout the economically vital Frankfurt/Rhine-Main-Neckar region. Thanks to synergies associated with the region’s dynamic industries, networked expertise, and outstanding intermodal transportation infrastructure, FRA’s world route network enables Germany’s export-oriented businesses to flourish in global markets. Likewise, FRA is a key gateway for companies wanting to access the huge European marketplace. Thus, Frankfurt Airport – which is strategically located in the heart of Europe – is one of the most important hubs in the global logistics chain.

www.fraport.com/   More news on FRAPORT https://www.eturbonews.com/?s=FRAPORT 

MEDIA CONTACT: Yi-Chun Sandy Chen, Corporate Communications Media Relations, Fraport AG, 60547 Frankfurt am Main, Telephone: +49 69 690-28779, y.chen@fraport.de

Fraport traffic figures – May 2019: Frankfurt Airport reports solid growth

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Frankfurt Airport (FRA) welcomed 6.2 million passengers in May 2019, an increase of 1.4 percent year-on-year. The growth rate would have been one percentage point higher, if FRA had not been affected by a number of weather and strike-related flight cancellations during the reporting month. Over the first five months of 2019, FRA achieved passenger growth of 2.9 percent.

Aircraft movements in May 2019 climbed by 1.0 percent to 46,181 takeoffs and landings. Accumulated maximum takeoff weights (MTOWs) expanded by 0.8 percent to about 2.8 million metric tons. Cargo throughput (airfreight + airmail) slightly grew by 0.6 percent to 185,701 metric tons.

Most of the airports in Fraport AG’s international portfolio also reported passenger growth in May 2019. Slovenia’s Ljubljana Airport (LJU) recorded a 1.8 percent increase in traffic to 170,307 passengers. The two Brazilian airports of Fortaleza (FOR) and Porto Alegre (POA) registered combined traffic of over 1.1 million passengers, also up slightly by 1.1 percent. In Peru, traffic at Lima Airport (LIM) rose by 8.0 percent to 2.0 million passengers.

The 14 Greek regional airports served about 3.1 million passengers overall, slipping by 1.9 percent year-on-year. This slight decline can largely be attributed to the bankruptcy of a few airlines – with other airlines, over the short term, only partially making up for the capacity loss. The busiest airports in Fraport’s Greek portfolio included: Thessaloniki (SKG) with 606,828 passengers, down 0.4 percent; Rhodes (RHO) with 599,993 passengers, down 5.1 percent; and Corfu (CFU) with 347,953 passengers, down 2.0 percent.

After a phase of very strong growth over the past three years, the Bulgarian airports of Varna (VAR) and Burgas (BOJ) are currently experiencing the

June 14, 2019 ANR 18/2019

consolidation of flight offerings, resulting in an 18.3 percent drop in traffic to 270,877 passengers. At the gateway to the Turkish Riviera, Antalya Airport (AYT) received about 3.6 million passengers, a gain of 3.3 percent. Pulkovo Airport (LED) in St. Petersburg, Russia, advanced by 8.4 percent to about 1.7 million passengers. Traffic at Xi’an Airport (XIY) in central China reached almost 4.0 million passengers, up 5.1 percent.

MEDIA CONTACT: Torben Beckmann, Fraport AG, Corporate Communications, Media Relations, 60547 Frankfurt, Germany, E-mail:  t.beckmann@fraport.de , Facebook:  www.facebook.com/FrankfurtAirport

Lufthansa makes dedicated staff look bad: The eTN Hero is Patricia Dzai of Swissport Johannesburg

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Lufthansa

“My personal hero today is Ms. Patricia Dzai. Patricia works for Swissport in Johannesburg, South Africa,” said eTN Publisher Juergen Steinmetz. Swissport is one of the largest aviation ground-handling agencies operating in countries around the world.

Major airlines hire Swissport to manage customer relations and logistics when it comes to baggage handling, including lost or misplaced items.

Lufthansa German Airlines’ ground handler in Johannesburg is Swissport. I recently traveled from Nice to Cape Town via Frankfurt and Johannesburg on Lufthansa German Airlines. I am a United Airlines Star Alliance Gold member and traveled on Lufthansa in Business class. Lufthansa is a member of Star Alliance.

When I arrived in Johannesburg, I heard my name called by Lufthansa’s lost baggage office handled by Swissport.

I was told my tube was still in Frankfurt, and they would put it on the next flight to Johannesburg. I explained it was of utmost importance to have the tube for an important trade show event, the World Travel Market in Cape Town, in the morning.

Patricia Dzai, the Swissport agent in Johannesburg, wanted to make sure this would be possible and sent an urgent message to Lufthansa in Frankfurt. The message said:

 

 

 

 

 

I was pleased to know my tube would go on LH 576 directly to Cape Town almost in time for the start of World Travel Market.

I went on to fly to Cape Town and received a text message in the evening saying my tube would be on the Lufthansa flight to Johannesburg, which was different from what Patricia had requested. Since it was late and the Swissport office in Johannesburg was closed, I was able to find a non-published phone number for Lufthansa baggage service in Frankfurt. Lufthansa, like most airlines, is hiding phone numbers to encourage passengers to communicate only by email.

I was told by Lufthansa Baggage Service in Frankfurt no such message to forward my tube to Cape Town was ever received by Swissport Johannesburg. The agent went on to say that passengers are often not told the truth by Swissport agents.

The Lufthansa agent in Frankfurt explained that his job was not to help me, since this was only handled in Johannesburg. I argued my tube is in Frankfurt and not Johannesburg, and the handling agent for Swissport in Johannesburg was closed.

The agent then said he was now doing a one-time exception for me and would reroute my tube on LH576 directly to Cape Town. He said there were 5 hours to get this done, still plenty of time according to him.

The next day I received another message telling me again the tube was on its way to Johannesburg instead of Cape Town.

I called Swissport in Johannesburg, and the news not could have been worse. They told me, apologizing, that my tube was still in Frankfurt for a second day, and they did not know why.

I again called the baggage-handling office in Frankfurt and was again told it’s all Swissport’s mistake for not telling them where to send it.

This time I was angry and called Swissport Johannesburg again. I asked Patricia why she was lying about this. I told her she never sent this request to Frankfurt, according to Lufthansa.

Ten minutes later, I received an email with a time-stamped screenshot from Patricia Dzai showing me exactly what was requested by her in the first place.

Patricia actually had gone out of her way originally to make sure I would be united with my tube on time and in Cape Town. I felt bad thinking she didn’t care and didn’t do anything, when in fact she did.

It shows that big companies like Lufthansa have a serious customer service issue. They hide behind a huge system and are trained to say it’s not their job and simply blame others for company shortcomings.

There was no way I could talk to anyone at Lufthansa about this, and my urgent email to them on the day I was trying to get the tube re-routed was just responded to 2 weeks after I was already back home in Hawaii. Lufthansa offered a 200 euro compensation.

No explanation was given and no apology for accusing Patricia Dzai and Swissport for not doing their job.

I finally received my tube on the last day after the trade show and took it back to the US unopened. When I changed planes in Frankfurt, I asked the agent working in the Senator Lounge to speak to a supervisor in baggage handling about this case and compensation. She told me I have to send an email, which I had already done days ago.

She gave me some chocolate and said they get customers’ complaints all the time and do their best to help and respond, but the back-up system by the airline is not there.

It’s all about a giant non-caring anonymous machine.

I extend my apologies to Patricia Dzai from Swissport, as I now understand she was also a victim of shortcomings created by Lufthansa German Airlines.

Patricia Dzai is the eTN Hero for today.

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TSA: New airport security scanner poses “privacy risks” to passengers

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US Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is demanding modifications of a new airport security system because it poses “privacy risks” to passengers by showing too much of them on display, a newly published document has revealed.

Following a demonstration, the Transportation Security Administration has requested changes to the contract because the scanner they received “has privacy risks associated with the Graphical User Interface,” says the document dated March 26 and made public by Quartz on Monday.

While the document provides no further details on the exact nature of the privacy risks, the TSA required the scanner’s manufacturer to add additional security features before it would consider using the device in a “live environment.”

Using another government database, Quartz identified the contractor – whose name is redacted in the document – as Virginia security firm ThruVision. The document refers to ThruVision’s TAC scanner, which the company describes as a “proven people-screening camera that sees any type of item.”

The device is supposed to be part of TSA’s “Future Lane Experience” (FLEx), an effort to speed up security checks that have become a major headache for passengers in many airports.

The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority partnered with the TSA last year to deploy ThruVision’s portable TS4 scanner, which the TSA claims to have vetted “extensively” prior to using it on LA commuters. It is unclear whether the TSA had similar concerns about the TS4 before the device was used in the field.

Revelations about the TSA concerns over the new scanner come after last week’s report by ProPublica that accused the agency’s current hardware of “discriminating” against African-Americans by misreading their hair, requiring a disproportionate number of pat-downs.

The ACLU slammed the TSA in 2009 for using scanning technology to conduct “virtual strip searches” that provided TSA employees with photos of passengers’ genitals, breasts and buttocks. More was revealed in 2010, when the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) published TSA documents which further detail the scanners’ invasiveness.

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SITA: Tracking airline passenger bags drives 66% improvement in baggage delivery

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Airlines that are adding tracking at more points of the baggage journey are enjoying a huge improvement in bag delivery globally. The SITA 2019 Baggage IT Insights – officially launched at an event in Abu Dhabi International Airport today – shows that where tracking is done at check-in and loading onto the aircraft, the rate of improvement is as high as 66%.

These results come as the record drop in the baggage mishandling rate achieved globally over the past decade plateaus, with the rate steady at around 5.7 bags per thousand passengers over the past three years. In 2018, the rate was 5.69 per thousand passengers.

Over the past year, an increasing number of airlines and airports have started to introduce tracking at key points in the journey – check-in, loading onto the aircraft, transfers and arrival – to improve baggage management and further reduce the chances of a bag being mishandled. SITA’s research provides the first glimpse of the success of this tracking. It reveals that where bags were being tracked when loaded onto the aircraft, the rate of improvement ranged between 38% and 66% depending on the level of tracking introduced.

Peter Drummond, Director of Baggage at SITA, said: “While the mishandling rate has started to plateau over the past few years, this comes against a continued growth in passenger numbers and their bags. In 2018, 4.36 billion travelers checked in more than 4.27 billion bags. More bags makes things more challenging. Everyone across the industry needs to look beyond the process and technology improvements made in the past decade and adopt the latest technology such as tracking to make the next big cut in the rate of mishandled bags.”

Ahmed Juma Al Shamsi, Acting Chief Operations Officer at Abu Dhabi Airports, said: “For our passengers the timely delivery of baggage is key to ensuring a seamless passenger experience and therefore an area in which we continue to make further improvements. Looking forward, baggage tracking is fundamental to driving more accurate bag delivery not only at Abu Dhabi International Airport but across the entire passenger journey. We have led the way with the introduction of tracking on arrival and we have already seen significant improvements.”

Transferring baggage from one aircraft, or airline, to another remains a pinch point in the journey and in 2018 it was again the main reason for bags being mishandled. Transfer bags accounted for 46% of all mishandled bags.
Drummond added: “Transfer is by far the most difficult stage to track a bag as there are multiple airlines and airports involved. However, data from this year’s report shows that tracking at key points in the journey, such as transfers, will go a long way to eliminating mishandling and will allow airlines and their passengers to keep tabs on where their bags are at every step of the way.”

Over the past decade, total number of mishandled bags per annum has plummeted 47% from 46.9 million in 2007 to 24.8 million in 2018, while the annual bill footed by the industry has shrunk 43% to $2.4 billion, down from $4.22 billion in 2007.

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