As the first airport in the world Copenhagen Airport has tested a tracking technology that aims to reduce delays and make the travelling experience less hectic for the passengers

It is dark and the streets of Copenhagen are unnaturally deserted at four in the morning on an ordinary Thursday. But as soon as one passes through the sliding doors of Copenhagen Airport, one is met by life, light and hectic activity. An airport never sleeps, and the passengers most certainly do not. They are busy checking departures, looking forward to their holidays, rummaging for passports and tickets and making sure that they have remembered everything before boarding their plane.

Mrs Jensen... please proceed to the gate

However, this particular Thursday is somewhat special for the passengers on SAS flight SK7763 to Sharm El Sheikh in Egypt. For they have been carefully selected to try out SPOPOS - a new tracking technology that makes travelling a smoother experience and ensures more flights on time. Unfortunately, airport personnel often have to deal with passengers who inadvertently board too late:

- People often get departure times wrong because they have misread the information boards, for instance. It happens all the time, and that is what SPOPOS is supposed to change, explains Henrik Bjørner Søe, Marketing Manager at Copenhagen Airports, to the early risers from the press corps.

TV-avisen, P4, Børsen and many other reporters have gathered at the airport to cover the first public test of the tracking system SPOPOS. Since February 2008, passengers for Kastrup - Sharm El Sheikh flights have regularly tested the tracking system but today the press is watching attentively. Behind SPOPOS are Alexandra Instituttet and a wide range of companies and research institutions, and Copenhagen Airport is the first European airport to test this particular combination of wireless technology.

RFID and Bluetooth technology

At check-in the passengers participating in the test are equipped with an RFID tag that communicates with each passenger’s mobile phone via Bluetooth. Later, when the traveller walks around in the terminals, the RFID tag continuously transmits a signal that registers if the mobile phone enters a new zone at the airport, which is divided into 19 zones in total. Thus the airport gets a clear picture of how passengers move about, and the system can automatically calculate the distance to the gate and send an SMS to the passenger if he or she is too far away from the gate shortly before boarding.

- We can send two different SMS’es to the passengers. A “gentle warning” to those who are still in good time and a less gentle warning to those who must really hurry up to get to the gate on time, explains Henrik Bjørner Søe.

Green… yellow… red... run!

At the entrance to the gate three SPOPOS technicians dressed in orange demonstrate to the journalists how the test passengers move around at the airport. Well, more or less. For the system does not register which shop you are in or if you are in the restroom. It only shows in which zone of the airport you are. On the monitor one can see a lot of green dots, each representing a passenger who is in good time. But as the time rapidly approaches for boarding, four dots suddenly turn yellow and then red. A yellow dot is a passenger who must proceed to the gate immediately, while a red dot indicates that the passenger must run. A warning message is then sent via SMS to the remaining passengers, and shortly after they show up at the gate, ready to board.

Little Brother helps you

The mobile phone numbers are erased the moment the plane takes off. According to Henrik Bjørner Søe, SPOPOS is not a surveillance system but should be regarded as a service that gives passengers a pleasant travelling experience. With SPOPOS we are not talking Big Brother watching the passengers; on the contrary, the system is a little brother who takes the delayed passengers by the hand and sees to it that they can all make the most of their time while at the airport. This morning’s test passengers also seemed very happy about the project:

- It was fun to take part in this. I think it’s a good idea to use the mobile phone - you always have it on you anyway, so I will definitely use this service again next time I travel, if it’s available, says a busy passenger while she is boarding.

SPOPOS in the future

So far SPOPOS has been tested in Copenhagen Airport only, but the technology is not exclusively for airports. According to Sarah Blichfeldt, Network Manager at Alexandra Instituttet, other enterprises and for instance entertainment parks can benefit from the potentials of SPOPOS.