Anyone living close to Heathrow Airport will be aware that it is planning to expand with a third runway in the not-to-distant future. It has now teamed up with a company called Copenhagen Optimization to upgrade the technology that forms the backbone of its services in preparation for this expansion.
Copenhagen Optimization offers a cloud-based Software-as-a-Service solution for airports to help them automate processes and better deal with various scenarios. Moving to the cloud-based solution means that Heathrow will be able to cope better with different challenges that its expansion might create. It also means that, for travellers, there are less likely to be delays and the movement through the airport could be quicker and more effective.
Heathrow’s Mark Burgess, the Head of Operational Planning, Performance & Transformation, said the new upgrade “will allow us to decrease wait times and continue to improve operations and passenger experience, as we prepare for the future of airport experience.”
Copenhagen Optimizations managing partner, Kasper Hounsgaard, explained that the ‘Better Airport’ system will mean that Heathrow will be prepared for anything. He said: “With Better Airport, the skilled planning team at Heathrow can optimise and automate their current planning processes, including the ability to quantify any what-if scenarios with hard numbers, which will lead to better resource allocation and higher cost savings. Heathrow is ready for significant future growth.”
Heathrow currently sees some 78 million passengers pass through each year and this is set to increase to a staggering 130 million passengers in the near future.
