How private wireless is changing the airport experience

• Airports are looking to private wireless networks to improve operations, executives said at MWC Las Vegas.
• Passengers could see benefits such as baggage claim and easier check-ins, panelists said.
• This article is part of the “5G and Connectivity Playbook,” a series exploring one of the most important technological innovations of our time.

Private wireless networks are critical to delivering a better airport experience for both travel hub operations and the billions of passengers who pass through them.

That’s according to airport executives who spoke on a panel about connected aviation Tuesday at the Mobile World Congress Las Vegas show.

Private networks generally offer greater security and reliability, lower latency, and higher bandwidth compared to public networks. For these reasons, they can help airports with operations and communications, aircraft and baggage tracking, and security.

California’s Ontario International Airport, for example, uses a private wireless network to run its perimeter intrusion detection system, said Charles Miwa, the airport’s chief information officer.

“As I think about a future with a lot of growth, private wireless is fundamental. It will allow us to accommodate these ad hoc moves,” he said, stressing the need for flexibility given how often many airports do some form of construction. to update their infrastructure.

“We’re trying to run more efficient airports, more customer-friendly airports,” said Michael Youngs, vice president of information technology at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport, which last year announced a $10 million deal with AT&T for a private network 5G. .

“We won’t do it with people. We won’t do it with brick and mortar. We will do it with technology, with IoT, but we need that basic level of connectivity, private wireless. , that will enable it,” he added, referring to the Internet of Things.

Private wireless networks can also help businesses with cost and mobility, reducing cable installation costs and providing connectivity in areas that might be harder to reach with wires.

“Traditionally, at the airport, in particular, we don’t put anything very secure on wireless. We just don’t,” said Kyle Mobley, chief information technology officer at the Port of Oakland, which operates San Francisco Bay Oakland International. Airport. “And not because we have any evidence that it’s going to be any less safe the way we do it. It’s what you don’t know.”

Mobley added, “Having this wireless infrastructure is huge.” Mobley talked about using private wireless for passenger traffic sensors, for example.

“It’s hard to still send people out into the field to investigate things at 2 in the morning,” he said. “And we cover such a wide area that getting these sensors — lidar, cameras, whatever they are — in every corner of our property is huge to give that person working at that office the ability to know what’s going on. is the squirrel running on the fence, or is it someone?

Some 58 percent of airports surveyed worldwide are investing in major development programs for a 5G communications network, and another 29 percent have research and development programs for the technology by 2026, according to the 2023 Air Transport IT report Insights from SITA. , a provider of IT and telecommunications services to the aviation industry and Airports Council International.

As for passengers, they could see benefits such as faster baggage claim or easier check-ins.

“I don’t want to be in the private wireless business — I feel like I have to be in the private wireless business,” Youngs said. “I have to leverage the data to move our airport forward. That’s really the end game.”