July-August_2021 - 22

COVER STORY
" COVID-19 is simply the biggest
challenge we have ever faced as an
airport. As we continue to navigate
through the pandemic, we will move
beyond this role and focus on aligning
to the future growth and needs of
our community and economy. Thus,
rethinking our operations to become
our
region's gateway to the new
economy.
" We started looking at our assets and
how they could link to the growing tech
community in our region. And we got
to thinking about, how could we help
the tech community not only incubate
ideas, but also how could they actually
bring their products to market and to
scale? " DuJohn recalled.
DuJohn continued that when you
think about an airport as a small city,
any technology can be tested and trialed
at an airport - and that's the concept
from which the Innovation Hub, in part,
sprang from. It was further propelled
when YVR got a new CEO, Tamara
Vrooman, who expanded on the idea
and helped bring it to fruition.
" We had always been considered
quite innovative at YVR. As an example,
we provide order processing kiosks that
airports across Canada and around the
world use which we developed in-house
at YVR. We sell those products to other
airports and so, the idea was, how do we
expand our innovation approach to go
beyond passenger processing into new
areas, given that passenger numbers
were down, " DuJohn added.
The long-term goals of the
Innovation Hub are to not only help
the local businesses, but to diversify the
partnerships the airport has and grow a
problem-solving community.
" We didn't want to, if we have a
problem, go out and just try to find
one company to be able to help solve
those problems, but how can we bring
multiple organizations together so that
they can learn and thrive off each other.
And so, that is one of the big goals, "
DuJohn said.
Work began on the Innovation
Hub in earnest over November 2020
and the Innovation Hub launched
fully this past spring, with a number
of partners already onboard. Those
involved so far include The British
Columbia Institute of Technology
(BCIT), Unity Technologies, GeoSim
Cities and Vanderlande.
BCIT is using the airport to give
students real world experience and trial
Internet of Things (IoT) sensors.
" They were creating their own center
of excellence around IoT, or internet
of things, and when they start this,
the students needed a lab to be able to
install sensors and to understand things.
So, instead of building their own lab,
they're going to use the airport as a lab.
So, that's an example of a partnership
that we have with higher edudcation, "
DuJohn said.
GeoSim Cities and Unity are
making a digital twin of the airport.
And Vanderlande, who DuJohn said
was exploring launching their own
innovation center but instead chose
to utilize YVR's Innovation Hub, are
also taking advantage of the digital twin
technology.
" We're working together on how we
can do innovation as partners and how
they could be twinning the baggage
system and learning from us so that they
can understand how digital twinning
could help their other customers around
the world, " DuJohn said.
DuJohn said YVR is in talks with
others to be part of the innovation Hub
and interest around it is growing.
" More people that hear about it,
the more people are interested and it's
just through conversations that we're
making these connections. Many,
many organizations are focused on
CVG'S SENSOR TECH
AUTHOR WALKER JAROCH
YVR isn't the only airport putting sensors and
data to use. The Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky
International Airport (CVG) has been utilizing
the technology for years and is only continuing
to grow with it.
CVG recently announced their expansion with
Veovo to manage and analyze Curb-to-Flight
passenger flow. CVG has been working with
Veovo's sensor technology, which tracks
passengers by the Bluetooth and Wi-Fi signals
of their cell phones, since 2015 and used the
technology to optimize their security wait
times.
" We felt that if we could bring in technology
and measure what was happening in the space,
which is such a critical piece of the journey
of a passenger and of an airport operation,
the security checkpoint, that if we could
start getting quantitative and quantitatively
analyzing and driving action based on that
quantitative data, that it was going to be
better for everyone, " said CVG's Director
of Innovation and Information Technology,
Stephen Saunders.
Saunders said the project was done in the spirit
of collaboration with the TSA and they were a
part of the project which, ultimately, helped to
improve their operations.
" Once the data started flowing, we were able
to start identifying some issues that we felt like
were issues and the sense that we were always
seeing spikes of wait times early in the morning
and we kind of identified that, " said Saunders.
" They took it back and looked at their metrics
and the things that they measure. And it
identified that yeah, they had some areas of
opportunity to adjust schedules. "
CVG will now be expanding the same
technology for more of their passenger's travel.
" The whole idea is there. Lots and lots of
people in the industry have talked about road
to runway, or curb to seat, and there's all these
different words for it. But really what we are
executing on is truly road to runway, " said
Saunders.
As soon as people come onto CVG's campus,
Saunders said they want to start capturing data
and " start that stopwatch " - understanding
what it takes for someone when they pull onto
the CVG campus until the time they leave on
their plane.
" What is that total dwell time? What does
that total experience look like? Because now
we can start understanding, are there roadway
infrastructure challenges? Are people getting
lost? Are people not finding parking or rental
car locations efficiently? Are we losing parking
revenue to off airport parking vendors based
on this challenge? Are we having issues in the
parking lot with people finding spaces? And
then, how long does it take for someone to
walk into the facility? Do we need to start
looking at different shuttle route times and
things like that, " he continued.
Once CVG begins to understand all of those
processes, Saunders said they can begin
outfitting areas with the appropriate tech and
personnel to decrease wait and wayfinding
times even more.
" So there is certainly a connectivity along the
whole chain that is not only going to benefit
the passenger, because if there are issues that
we have not been able to put our thumb on,
that stand out in the data, then we can address
those, but it can also help address, things after
security like concessions for example, to make
it a more enjoyable experience for travelers, "
Saunders said.
22 \ AIRPORTBUSINESS / JULY/AUGUST 2021
July-August_2021

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