Details...
American Airlines has initiated a pilot scheme to
implement a cellular circuit switched network that will provide any of its flight
assistance staff without a physical terminal access to the entire reservation system. The
following type of information will be available on hand-held PCs used by agents at the
gates and on the floor:
American Airlines is testing some of these applications on a
wireless (CDPD) network.
The objective is to reduce passenger line-ups and take-off delays in order
to improve customer
service.
Symbol Technology’s LRT 3800 hand-held scanner/terminal are
being used by Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) to match individual bags with passengers in
real-time. The objective was to improve productivity, speed up baggage handling process at
transfer points, reduce lost bags and improve passenger security. Similarly at the
Frankfurt airport, baggage handlers are using Eagle hand held terminal that contains a code
reader for scanning baggage tags and a Mobidem M2060 integrated radio modem. The scanner
is connected to the host computer system. This terminal is being used in a new baggage
reconciliation system called FRA-BRS, which is designed to improve security and service at
the airport. The system has replaced manual baggage handling procedures and is resulting
in greater efficiency, security and reliability. Because of baggage reconciliation
with
passengers, opportunities for terrorist attacks are also greatly diminished.
Delta Airlines is also using mobile scanners to scan bar-coded
information from baggage tickets directly into a database. KLM is using mobile notebooks
in its maintenance operations. Technicians on site can enter status information, order
parts and schedule routine or emergency repairs right from their notebook computers.
Telxon has an airline baggage
scanning solution based on their handheld scanner and application
software. For more information: Telxon Airline Application
Major Issues
-
Security continues to be a major
issue - current level of encryption (56 bit) and lack of digital
certificates for wireless devices will delay implementation
-
Lack of an international payment
standard and infrastructure for handheld devices
-
Custom integration with very
sophisticated, specialized and high-performance reservation systems
based on IBM's MQSeries and other custom implementations like SABRE
-
Scalability of current solutions
for potentially high volumes of transaction traffic in future
-
Compatibility and
integration with corporate technology architecture
For Airline Case Studies, go
here.
Railway industry is another vertical industry where mobile computing
has found a home. Conrail has implemented a sophisticated pen-based work order application
on Grid System’s Gridpad pen computers, using RAM Mobile Data network. As a result of
automating the work order process, work requests take only minutes instead of 12 hours to
be shipped to the work crew.
MobileInfo
Advisory and Comments : Airline industry was always among the
most sophisticated users of IT and networks. While the need and business
case is there for adoption of wireless and mobile solutions, it will
move slowly and gradually in a planned fashion. It will start pilots and
carefully plan the roll outs. In view of potential impact of a
technology that is still not mature, this caution is warranted.
