Oslo Airport Gardermoen (OSL) is Norway’s main airport, handling over 19 million passengers annually. In 2010, OSL was named Europe’s mostefficient airport by the Air Transport Research Society, with the efficiency oftheir security screening process highlighted as a key aspect of their rating.

Challenge

As one of Europe’s leading airports, OSL retains ambitious service qualityindicators to ensure they remain amongst the continent’s most efficientairports, particularly in the face of increased passenger numbers andterminal capacity constraints.

It is critical to the achievement of OSL’s vision that passengers have anexcellent experience at the airport. This includes ensuring efficiency acrossthe security control process, with specific goals that are constantly reviewedin order to optimise processes and staffing. In conjunction with these goals,it is key that passengers’ experience of security - including their perception ofwaiting time - is in line with this vision. In order to facilitate informed decisionmaking and continuous improvement, OSL requires accurate historical, realtimeand forecast data, with passenger waiting time central to performancemeasurement and staff planning. OSL has previously measured passengerwaiting time manually. This process proved time consuming and challengingto communicate to passengers in a timely manner.

OSL recognised that in order to sustain such service levels, they had to adopt a multi-faceted approach in enabling continuous improvement of their passenger processes. This approach had to effectively manage performance across key operational areas whilst delivering ongoing performance measurement. Allied to this, OSL recognised that the quality of the passenger experience is linked to optimisation of resources in line with passenger demand. Without the relevant operational systems, implementing such a programme of performance review and improvement would have been a resource intensive process. After an in-depth review and tendering process, OSL chose to implement two of Amor Group’s passenger operations solutions, PAXPredict+ and PAXPath+, to provide accurate passenger forecasting, in addition to Bluetooth queue measurement.

Implemented in December 2009, OSL has been using PAXPredict+ to improve resourcing, not only at security, but at key pinch points across the terminal. PAXPredict+, with its 98% forecast accuracy, has been central in assisting OSL and their suppliers identify and manage spikes in passenger demand across each operational day, resulting in reduced queue times thanks to passenger-aligned resourcing.

The rationale for implementing Bluetooth queue measurement solution, PAXPath+, was also clear when OSL considered the impact of passenger perception on the overall passenger experience. When OSL passengers were asked how long they expect to wait in line, most tended to over-estimate, with the average answer being 13 minutes. When asked how long they actually waited in line, passengers also tended to over-estimate the number of minutes spent waiting.

OSL is utilising PAXPath+, powered by BlipTrack™, to display live queue times on public displays within the departure area and on their website, enabling passengers to plan accordingly, reducing the stress levels associated with queuing and ensuring they remain informed throughout the screening process.

With capacity and space restraints in the terminal, displaying waiting times has provided better possibilities for the passengers to select the fastest moving queue, balancing the load in different areas and ensuring wait times are minimised. The forecasting and queue measurement systems are providing OSL with invaluable information for capacity planning, and performance monitoring across the airport. One of the main drivers behind OSL’s desire for continuos improvement is the airport’s overall performance in ACI’s annual Airport Service Quality (ASQ) survey, with the airport confident that both PAXPath+ and PAXPredict+ will enable a clear improvement within the ASQ survey.