Istanbul Airport’s focus on AI, Machine Learning, AR and VR
Istanbul Airport aims to be a pioneer of digital transformation and is utilising cutting-edge technologies to take its CX efforts to the next level. In this interview, ahead of their participation at the co-located FTE EMEA and FTE Ancillary & Retailing events (Dublin, 11-13 June 2024), iGA Istanbul Airport’s Ahmet Er, Digital Transformation and Channel Management Deputy Manager, and Dilanur Çetinalp, Digital Transformation and Channel Management Supervisor, share the strategy to become the world’s most guest-centred hub airport.
Er and Çetinalp are speaking at the co-located FTE EMEA and FTE Ancillary & Retailing events in a session titled ‘Unleashing innovative airport strategies for customer and commercial excellence’.
“Istanbul Airport has an important location at the intersection of Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and is the first and often the only point where our guests set foot in Turkey,” Er begins. “With this multicultural environment of national and international guests comes differentiating feedback. We have a complex structure and service environment that interconnects a variety of different teams. Our business as Istanbul Airport is defined by ‘hospitality’ first and foremost. ‘Hospitality is our duty’ is not just a concept that we limit to the behaviour patterns of our staff in contact with passengers, but our term of reference, a definition of our job itself. In this vision, our aim is to make our guests feel like they are at home by maintaining our service quality at every point.”
Indeed, with this service mentality prioritising customer satisfaction, Istanbul Airport puts into practice efforts to offer passengers a journey that combines technology with the physical environment. “We pursue a strategy enabling us to adapt ourselves to changes in the fastest manner possible and to become a pioneer of digital transformation,” says Er.
“Augmented Reality has the potential to revolutionise how passengers navigate through airports, access information, and engage with their surroundings”
Istanbul Airport is innovating to take its digital transformation and customer experience efforts to the next level. It forecasts that as global trends evolve, and new technologies emerge in the coming years, travel experiences will also change. “One technology that we are particularly excited about for transforming the passenger experience is Augmented Reality (AR). AR has the potential to revolutionise how passengers navigate through airports, access information, and engage with their surroundings,” Çetinalp explains. “By positioning the latest technologies, such as Augmented Reality, Machine Learning and Virtual Reality, at the centre of our digital mindset, we have made it easier for our guests to access and receive information regardless of time and place. We use conversational AI technology and have developed a digital assistant system to respond to customer enquiries 24/7.”
Within this context, Istanbul Airport has set out to become the world’s most guest-centred hub airport. As part of this strategy, its objective is to design passengers’ travel experiences even before they arrive at the airport. “We determined the needs and expectations by combining common pain-points on experience maps,” Er shares. “We added complementary technologies and services to meet the needs and expectations of our guests, with innovative solutions for individual steps from home to boarding. In addition to our pain-point-specific solutions, we have developed digital assistants – called ‘Digital Companions’ – specifically for differentiated needs.”
Digital Companions: “Integrating both physical interactions and digital steps with a rich solution set”
The innovative and technological functions of the ‘Digital Companions’ encompass almost each and every contact point, including individual steps such as car parking and transportation, wayfinding in the terminal, travel requirements and boarding.
“The menus, scenarios, and service channels, supported with AI, have been implemented for the first time in the aviation sector,” says Çetinalp. “We were aware that the classical solutions prepared for car parking, check-in, information processes and flight/gate tracking, which our guests encounter from the first moment they arrive at the airport, would not be sufficient alone. For example, physical maps of the terminal, information posters, and physical/mobile information points make our guests dependent on a place or human touch. Or a guest flying for the first time would spend the most enjoyable moments of their journey with the stress of following their flight on FIDS. In this context, we have created a structure that combines the physical environment, technology and human touch by integrating both physical interactions and digital steps with a rich solution set and embedded it into the journeys.”
One of the digital solutions Istanbul Airport has added to its service points within the terminal is the ability to easily receive flight information from the ‘Where is my gate?’ information device directly to WhatsApp. Travellers can access gate information by entering their flight information or scanning their boarding card – they can also transfer this information to their WhatsApp.
Looking ahead, Er and Çetinalp are keen to participate in the co-located FTE EMEA and FTE Ancillary & Retailing events in Dublin in June. “We are eager to hear about the latest innovations and discussions that come out of the Future Travel Experience event in Dublin! It’s always exciting to see how the industry is evolving to enhance the travel experience for passengers.”
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