Dubai, UAE, March 11,2015:The Airports Council International (ACI)is collaborating within and outside of the industry on passenger facilitation solutions and supporting implementation and harmonization of Automated Border Control (ABC) solutions that use interoperable equipment and common international standards.
Representing airports which handles 95 per cent of the worlds passenger traffic, ACI, along with ICAO and IATA has supported the proliferation of ABC systems in the US.

This new technology allows travelers to complete the required travel documentation at kiosks, increasing the efficiency of passenger processing and freeing passport control/immigration officers to focus on their security tasks. The increased throughput from this technology will allow passengers to move more quickly through the Customs and Border Protection (CBP)process, thereby improving travel facilitation.
Speaking at the Future of Borders International Conference in Dubai today, the industry veteran said ACI has collaborated with CBP to launch a first-of-its-kind application to expedite travelers entry processes into the US. The app allows eligible travelers to submit their passport information and customs declaration form via a smartphone or tablet prior to CBP inspection.
The conference has been organised by the General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs (GDRFA-Dubai) under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, President of Dubai Civil Aviation Authority, Chairman of Dubai Airports and Chairman and Chief Executive of Emirates Airline and Group.

She remarked: We are working with other stakeholders to gain greater efficiency and a better passenger experience at the worlds airports to help in managing future growth.Our mission is to promote professional excellence in airport operations and management.

A current concentration is on gaining reductions in the visa process, going country by country to help them understand the impact of their visa requirements on their tourism and travel market, she said, referring to the Global Travel Association Coalition (GTAC), of which ACI is a founding member. ACI is the global trade body for the airport industry with 590 members operating 1,850 airports in 173 countries.
Angela remarked: There is a lot to be done we have big job ahead of us. It will take substantial collaboration within the industry, with government and with other interested parties to accommodate the growing demand for air travel safely and securely, to meet our environmental commitments and to sustain our businesses.

She disclosed that ACI was joining with ICAO, CANSO and IATA to promote broader implementation of A-CDM and will produce globally applicable guidance material. Implementation was underway in Europe with significant input from EURCONTROL and ACI-Europe. A clear focus on customer service is something that ACI sees as equally important for the future growth of the industry.
Airports today have become very accomplished in both the science and art of managing service quality. We see leading practice in every region. Airport service quality benchmarking has come a long way in the past ten years and the bar has been raised across the industry.

Stating that passenger traffic will continue to grow, especially in emerging markets, and getting greater efficiency and safeguarding the passenger experience at airports will be necessary to sustain the business, she said Smart Security, Airport Collaborative Decision Making (A-CDM)and Airport Service Quality (ASQ) are among programmes that will help airports get there, along with collaboration on multiple facilitationprojects.
A-CDM consists of sharing information among the various players whose operations affect the movement of planes, passengers, baggage and ground vehicles.
Angela observed: We can put more efficiency and reliability into the system by sharing information among the players. This is especially critical during periods of irregular operationseither of a particular aircraft, airline or the airport as a whole. Passengers miss their connections while security controls, customs and immigration, retail and food shops get out of synch with passenger flows. Airports become overly congested in the terminals and on their access roads and confusion reigns.
About the state of the industry from an airport perspective, she said year-over-year passenger traffic increases range from 3.2 per cent in North America to an impressive 10.3 per cent in the Middle East. In fact, double-digit growth rates continue to persist for airports across the region.

Abu Dhabi and Doha grew by 20.2 per cent and 13.2 per cent respectively. Dubai International has moved up to the sixth busiest airport in the world in 2014, the year when it also overtook London Heathrow as the worlds top airport for international passengers. The compounded average annual growth rate in passenger traffic for the period 2004 to 2014 was 4.2 per cent. The worlds airports last year handled 6.6 billion passengers.
She disclosed the airport sector posted net profit margins in the realm of 16 per cent in 2013, 67 per cent of airports globally operate at a net loss. About 80 per cent of airports with fewer than a million passengers lost money. Industry profitability is primarily driven by the 20 per cent of airports that carry the bulk of passenger and cargo traffic.

Airports worldwide had an average return on invested capital of six percent with the highest return generated by airports with passenger volume between five and 15 million. Airports with fewer than one million passengers have a negative return on invested capital of less than three per cent.
Angela said ACI, in collaboration with LeighFisher, released a study titled, Assessment of Human Factors in Checkpoint Security, that can help an airport benchmark its current performance and help point the way toward increased efficiency and effectiveness.