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Greater Toronto Airports Authority
Pearson Airport - IT Solution for a Common-Use Environment
One Comprehensive Network at Pearson Airport Delivers Advanced Technological Services and Flexibility Previously Impossible
Background
Toronto Pearson International Airport has enornous economic impact on the Greater Toronto Area. It meets the aviation needs of millions of tourists every year. More than $31 billion worth of goods are processed through the airport annually. It generates $3 billion in annual tax revenue.
With 76 airlines posting more than 1,200 arrivals and departures every day, Toronto Pearson handled almost 30 million passengers in 2005, a number that is expected to reach 50 million by 2020. More than 80,000 people are employed at the airport, which generates annual revenue in excess of $900 million.
Responsibility for managing the airport rests with the Greater Toronto Airports Authority (GTAA), a not-for-profit corporation established in 1993 with a mandate to provide the Greater Toronto Area with a regional system of airports that meets the current and future demands for air services.
Challenge
Toronto Pearson is a very complex operating environment - more than 500 passenger check-in counters, 60 self-serve check-in kiosks, 85 airline gates, 1,000 information screens, 29,000 pieces of baggage to process every day, and extensive back-office operations supporting the airport, airlines and other building tenants such as restaurants and shops.
With more than 200 information technology and telecommunications (IT&T) systems already in use throughout the airport, the GTAA needed a new technology model to deliver the advanced services and flexibility required for future needs. Its challenges for the future include fluctuating passenger traffic, increasing security requirements, escalating costs and greater demands from airlines and passengers for better, faster service.
Solution
Introduced with the expansion of Terminal 3 and made fully operational with the opening of the new Terminal 1 in 2004, the GTAA implemented a new technology model in the form of a Common-Use Environment (CUE), which delivers advanced technological services and operational flexibility previously not possible.
The CUE is built primarily around a new Campus Area Network that integrates data, voice and video traffic. It enabled the GTAA to consolidate 14 separate, proprietary networks into a single network spanning the entire 1,800 hectare airport site and integrating the 200 existing IT&T systems.
The Campus Area Network, North America's largest Cisco-switched integrated network, has enabled the GTAA to provide the airlines a variety of advanced IT&T services in a secure, shared environment. In addition to the network core, the CUE integrates other critical airport systems, including 1,100 IP phones, 1,000 closed-circuit TV security cameras, third-party software for key applications such as check-in, gate management and baggage handling, and wireless communications supporting baggage tracking and travellers wanting to access the Internet.
Results
The GTAA's new Common-Use Environment enables the airlines to reduce costs by eliminating the need to operate and maintain their own separate, proprietary networks. It is also helping the airlines improve the efficiency of passenger processing and enhance their ability to quickly and easily respond to operational changes such as flight delays due to bad weather or other emergencies.
If a landing gate has to be changed suddenly because of an emergency, security personnel can be dispatched to the new gate in minutes, and airline data can be sent to the gate by switching a communications port.
For the thousands of passengers passing through Toronto Pearson every day, the CUE means improved access to timely flight and departure/arrival gate information. Integrated baggage-handling solutions have reduced the number of lost bags - trial tests indicate that the number of mishandled bags can be reduced by up to 50 per cent - thus helping to increase overall passenger satisfaction as measured by independent surveys.
From an airport operations perspective, the CUE has brought improvement on many fronts, including enhancing security by integrating communication systems, security cameras and card-access readers across the airport.
By enabling the GTAA to offer fee-based IT services to the airport community, the CUE has also helped increase airport revenue. Since 2003, the average annual increase in airport revenue directly attributable to IT&T has been 166 per cent.
Innovative Use of Technology
Toronto Pearson International Airport has become a showcase for information technology in the airline industry. Upon the opening of Terminal 1, Toronto Pearson was recognized as the world's most technologically advanced airport.
A few other airlines in the world have implemented common-use environments, but Toronto Pearson is the first to make it encompass every airport activity including commercial and retail operations. The solution has been visited by more than 30 large airport operators and is being replicated globally.
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