EN- Industry Focuses

What are the key challenges facing the airport industry? Faith Varwig: Every day you wake up and the threat has changed, and there's a new issue to deal with. It could be a fence jumper, an insider incident, or even a terrorist threat, so you need a technolog y platform that's flexible and can change as quickly as your environment. With billions being invested in expansion, the challenge is maintaining a safe and secure environment when there are construction projects bringing unknown people to work at your facility. Olivier Jankovec: Likewise, security and terror threats are top of our agenda. Beyond security, it's the airport capacity crunch, and growing our license. e European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation – Eurocontrol – estimates that by 2035, 12% of the demand for air transport won't be accommodated due to a lack of airport capacity. is will result in unprecedented levels of congestion and disruptions, as well as in the loss of significant economic value – not only for the aviation sector but also European economies. Franck Mereyde: e big one for us will be the digitization of the door- to-door airport process. e industry has always been at the forefront of innovation, and it will face disruptive technological challenges in a fast- changing, globalized ecosystem. We continuously enhance security and safety and implement new processes to keep our personnel, passengers, and buildings safe. Paris has been attacked, but with the help of technolog y and the strong motivation of police and the military, and all our employees and partners, our airports continue to grow. What are the big changes you're seeing in the industry? OJ: e past 10 to 15 years have seen so much change. Airports in Europe have emerged as businesses, going from infrastructure providers to fully fledged and diversified. rough that process, they've changed from being predominantly B2B to B2C businesses, with a strong focus on consumers and quality. All this has been enabled by the digital revolution, which has led to a direct engagement with the passenger, and facilitated operational efficiencies. ere's also much more airport competition coming from the rise of low-cost airline models that are being extremely flexible in deploying their assets – but also from increased shareholder pressure. FV: I think the biggest thing we're seeing is security departments wanting more robust systems. Most airports are still migrating from analog to IP-based systems – very few have made the transition from legacy CCTV systems. Store detection is something everybody in the US is looking at right now. We're also focusing a lot on perimeter and intrusion detection – integrating, flying sensors, buried line sensors, microwaves, radar, and even the use of drones. And I think the big one really is the desire to develop a truly integrated platform to pull all those technologies into a single robust user interface for the people on the commanding control centers. Franck Mereyde is Director of Paris-Orly Airport. France's second busiest airport is operated by Paris Aéroport, the authority that owns and manages 14 civil airports and airfields in the Île-de-France region, including Charles de Gaulle International. 2 Roundtable

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