Finnish airport operator Finavia has teamed up with Amadeus to modernise the passenger experience at 11 of its airports.
Finavia serves more than 50 airlines operating scheduled flights and has more than 600 check-in desks at the airports. It chose Amadeus Flow, an integrated cloud solution, to modernise all aspects of passenger handling including software, hardware and services. This includes accelerating innovations such as contactless payment for a more agile response to COVID-19.
“We’re moving to an open cloud platform with Amadeus and that means we can roll out new innovations far more easily, without lengthy certification cycles or on-site IT projects. We’re now well placed to add innovations like contactless payments quickly and easily without the need for Finavia to become a systems integrator. Airports are digitally transforming and I believe COVID-19 marks a tipping point where our industry goes cloud,” siad Leyla Akgez-Laakso, CIO, Finavia.
A single internet link connects Finavia’s airports to Amadeus where any airline application can be easily deployed in a matter of hours. Frictionless payment enables travellers to pay more easily with contactless technology. Amadeus’s Airport Pay solution will be deployed from the cloud allowing passengers to pay for ancillary services such as extra baggage or lounge access conveniently and in a contactless manner at all check-in desks.
The flexibility of the cloud infrastructure means that Finavia, airlines and ground handling companies can easily open, close or relocate check-in desks, boarding gates or services with agility in response to fluctuating passenger demand caused by COVID-19. This agility will also facilitate seasonal demand at airports like Lapland, where passengers will be able to check in and drop their bags from Lapland’s hotels in the future.
“The immediate pressures of COVID-19 and the demands of long-term digital transformation both require a new approach to airport technology,” said Yannick Beunardeua, VP Airport IT EMEA, Amadeus. “Airports need to be able to roll out new capabilities quickly and they need to be able to adapt services to changing requirements of passengers. By choosing to run its infrastructure from the cloud with Amadeus, Finavia is ready to innovate for many years to come.”
He also noted that with many of Finavia’s regional airports being heavily seasonal, “we have plans to harness the cloud to offer airlines a possibility to check in passengers at hotels, reducing queues and demand of services at the terminal. ”
The major technology modernisation will also see a full hardware refresh including 600 agent workstations, printers and scanners which are all fully integrated into the Amadeus Flow platform. The migration will begin to yield benefits during 2021 and is expected to be fully completed at 11 of Finavia’s 20 airports at the beginning of 2022.
