Airport of the Future

With the holiday season upon us, visiting relatives and spending time with loved ones is on many people’s agendas, and the fastest way to do that is often by air.

The EU recently announced that it will ban x-ray body scanners at airports.  This was reported on last month by CNN.  But don’t jump for joy yet- there will be another security measure to take their place.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has delineated its vision for the future of airport security.  They plan on implementing a series of neon lit tunnels.  This sounds exciting and at least colorful, but it is more than just aesthetically enhancing airports of the future.

These neon-lit tunnels come equipped with eye scanners, x-ray machines and metal and liquid detectors.  Travelers will be issued a ‘travel profile”, which might prove to be the most controversial and time-consuming part to implement, and then escorted into one of the various tunnels in airports throughout the globe.

Think this sounds impressive.  Well the time-line to implementation is even more impressive.  The IATA is hoping to have these features in airports within the next 5-7 years.

What are your insights on the airport of the future?

This new idea sounds like it would make long security lines  a thing of the past.  It would be more ascetically pleasing not to mention futuristic.  After-all most airports do need updating (it is the 21st century).

The question is, is this less intrusive than what is available now?  Probably not, but with its new ascetics and  low key security features passengers might not mind it as much as the time consuming body scanners in place right now.  It could  alleviate anxiety surrounding ethnic profiling as well.

For more information about airport security read the rest of “The Future of Airport Security”.

Do you think that this is more intrusive than what is in place now? Or do you think it is speedier and more customer friendly?

One thought on “Airport of the Future

  1. I’d also be concerned with what they *do* with the data. How long is it kept, who do they share it with, and how to they protect it?

    Another thing is that whether it’s x-ray equipment or reading nonverbals, you still don’t know what a person is thinking. I’d be curious to see how effectively they can use the collected information with followup actions (e.g. further observation, correlation with existing information, field contact, etc.)

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