Bengaluru International Airport Ltd has signed an agreement with Unisys for a business intelligence and advanced data analytics platform designed to personalise and improve the passenger experience.

The platform for predictive, prescriptive modelling, will include artificial intelligence technology to help the airport better anticipate and meet the passenger and airline needs.

Unisys Corporation announced that it has entered into an agreement with Bangalore International Airport Ltd (BIAL) – operators of Kempegowda International Airport, Bengaluru – to develop an Analytics Center of Excellence as well.

The Analytics Center of Excellence will support a business intelligence and an advanced data analytics platform for BIAL to consolidate and rationalise the airport’s strategic, tactical and operational reporting, enabling airport staff to make faster and better-informed business decisions, process air travellers more quickly and enhance the airport experience for the customer.

The platform will allow the airport to provide real-time content information pertaining to airport services and flight information. The services will also provide travellers access to improved airport navigation, communication of airport services and proactive and personalised retail offerings based on passenger preferences and past spending history. This not only offers passengers greater visibility into airport amenities and services, but it also establishes an avenue for BIAL to generate non-aeronautical revenues.

Satyaki Raghunath, Chief Strategy and Development Officer, BIAL said, “BIAL is committed to being a data-driven organisation that will create a smart, futuristic and intuitive airport journey for passengers. Unisys brings a strong combination of in-depth understanding of the aviation industry and proven experience in delivering digital transformation for organisations of all sizes. Unisys’ solution will provide us intelligent and intuitive data and analytics that will support the enhancement of the customer experience we provide.”

As part of the new data-driven airport framework, the Unisys-developed platform will allow BIAL to generate more than 150 insightful, interactive business intelligence reports, utilising artificial intelligence and machine learning to forecast future travel patterns and traveller trends. This will enable the airport to shift its strategy from hindsight to foresight, predictive to prescriptive, and improve the future decision-making processes. Hosted on the Microsoft Azure cloud platform, the solution employs Azure capabilities such as Azure HDInsight, SQL Data Warehouse, Azure Machine Learning and Azure Advanced Data Analytics services.

“BIAL is a perfect partner, committed to meeting the growing needs of today’s connected traveller,” said Tony Windever, Vice-President and Managing Director, Asia-Pacific, Unisys. “This strategic collaboration leverages Unisys’ deep domain expertise and digital transformation capabilities, like the Analytics Center of Excellence, to create a more agile, predictive business model for travel and transportation customers. Supporting BIAL’s innovative vision, this has the potential to become one of the most advanced deployments of data and analytics for any airport in India, and potentially in the world.”

BIAL is a public-private consortium that owns and operates Kempegowda International Airport, Bengaluru, the third busiest airport in India by passenger traffic. According to BIAL, the annual passenger traffic through the airport is expected to grow from 26.91 million passengers in FY2018 to over 65 million passengers in the next decade. To meet growing passenger demand, the airport will introduce a second runway by 2019 and open a second terminal by 2021.

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