Cisco
Creating the Best Airport Experience in Europe – and Beyond: A Fraport Case Study
- This article first appeared in the Airport Industry-News magazine Issue 1 2021.
Challenge: Competing for Global Passengers
The competition for air travelers has historically been between airlines. But in today’s consumer- centric, globally connected market, airports must also compete.
“The passenger has always been the customer of the airline, and the airline has always been the customer of the airport— but that’s changing,” says Ralf Schneider, senior manager of IT network architecture at Fraport.
“Today’s passengers are choosing airports in addition to airlines.” They’re gravitating to the most efficient and most modern hubs, he explains. They’re seeking the latest retail, food, and even entertainment options that will make their journeys more enjoyable. And they’re selecting their flight routes and spending their money accordingly.
“To compete for passengers, we need to understand and serve them better,” says Schneider. “We need to create services that are personalized and dynamic and provide compelling reasons to come back to our airports.”
Increasing Insight, Speed and Agility
With airlines holding the vast majority of customer information, understanding passengers and personalizing their travel experiences have been major hurdles for airports. But industry leaders like Fraport are digitizing their operations and leveraging emerging technologies to gain new levels of insight, speed, and agility.
“Until recently, we haven’t had any knowledge of the customer until they go through security screening,” Schneider laments. “That’s why we’ve embarked on a huge digital transformation strategy and plan to take advantage of things like Big Data and AI.”
Fraport implemented Cisco ACI and FlexPod as the foundation of its digital transformation strategy, bringing together the industry’s leading software-defined networking solution and the best- in-class converged infrastructure platform. The automation and centralized policy control of Cisco ACI were key factors in the decision, allowing Fraport to integrate its two primary data centers and create consistent application and security policies that can be extended to the cloud.
