Birmingham airport has installed technology which tracks waiting times for arriving passengers at its north immigration hall.
The BlipTrack queue management technology works by detecting travellers’ mobile devices as they pass by multiple Bluetooth and wifi sensors, allowing the system to compile “specific and accurate statistical information, such as travel times, dwell times and movement patterns become available, without interaction from the travelers”.
The information is then posted on screens, to help “reduce passenger frustration by creating realistic wait time expectations”.
Birmingham airport said that the technology “helps the airport to improve resource planning and to ease travelers minds with accurate line wait times”, adding that it also enabled the airport to “monitor line density in real-time, which allows management to respond promptly and effectively to irregular operations and disruptions, such as opening additional lines”.
Commenting on the technology, Christian Bugislaus Carstens, Marketing Manager at BLIP Systems said:
“Today, many airports display wait times to their passengers. Typically, this is done by measuring dwell times of people leaving the line. However, these “historic” times may not be accurate for those entering the line, especially if the number of people suddenly changes or more lines open up.
“BlipTrack combines and analyses both the number of people in line and the average throughput of the area. With these two measurements, accurate wait times can be displayed.”
The airport said that there are plans to extend the project into other areas, such as the southbound security and immigration.
Over 25 airports worldwide use the Blip Track technology, including Schiphol, New York JFK, Dublin, Brussels, Bristol and Edinburgh.
