In April this year, Luis Cañón stepped down from his post as deputy director of Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas Airport to take up the role of head of innovation at Aena. After a 13-year career at this public entity, this industrial engineer, who studied at the University of León, now heads its Innovation and Digital Transformation Plan.
This plan, which began in 2021 and will run until 2026, has a roadmap structured around three strategic programmes: passenger insights, efficient use of resources and beyond the airport. “All innovative initiatives carried out within the organisation must fall into one of these three categories,” explained Cañón during his conversation with D+I – EL ESPAÑOL.
To this end, they have an extensive test site spread across the country – the 48 airports managed and operated by Aena in Spain. “We are aiming to roll out the pilot schemes to small and medium-sized businesses, and not just the largest facilities, so that everyone progresses at the same pace and understands how and in what areas we are innovating,” explained the executive.
He cites as an example the trial carried out a few days earlier at San Sebastián airport using a 5G network, a drone and video analytics. “Aircraft marshallers [traffic control officers who guide aircraft during their operations on the runways] carry out a daily inspection to identify objects on the runways; this system would improve their efficiency and safety,” explained Cañón.
Objects on the runway were identified with an accuracy of over 90%. These results mean they can now begin to roll it out gradually at various airports, although no specific date has yet been set.
Biometric recognition
Biometric recognition, one of the company’s flagship projects, does look set to be rolled out in the coming months. “We want to begin installing the infrastructure –biometric gates with the identification system– by the end of the year and for it to become operational over the following three years at the first airports, which will be Palma, Madrid and Barcelona”, said Aena’s Director of Innovation.
The pilot project began in Menorca with Air Europa, in Barcelona with Vueling and in Madrid with Iberia. “To implement this sort of solution, we always need to work hand in hand with a partner, such as airlines or security firms. In this case, we need to work very closely with them because we handle passenger data, which involves a process of securing and safeguarding that data, a task handled by the National Mint”, said Cañón, who clarified that this identification system will not replace the traditional one, “it will simply be another option”.
“It’s a convenient option for those who don’t want to carry their boarding pass and wish to minimise contact points. They will be able to pass through the various security checks, check in and board using just their biometric parameters”, he said.
Its use will also enable Aena to gain a better understanding of its passengers and their preferences, so that it can offer them more personalised services. “Instead of having 20 customer segments representing the entire population passing through airports, it will be possible to identify each individual,” he confirmed regarding this project, which forms part of the strategic passenger insight plan.
Another key area of focus in Aena’s Innovation and Digital Transformation Plan is the efficient use of resources. The use of drones to detect objects on the runway is just one of the initiatives currently under way; another is the development of remote airbridges so that aircraft can be docked without staff having to handle them ‘physically’.
This pilot scheme aims to enable staff to operate this equipment from a control room, thereby improving the quality of their work and enhancing their safety, as they will not have to move around the terminal or walk along the runways. “It’s not a question of replacing the workforce with machines, but of redeploying resources through training programmes”, asserted the executive. “Technology is here to help us and make us more productive.”
Video analytics, drones and 5G
Video analytics, together with the use of drones and the roll-out of a 5G network, are the main areas of focus for this public-sector company as it moves forward with various proof-of-concept trials. “We don’t capture an image of the passenger, but rather their [anonymised] data, in order to understand current processes and be able to change certain procedures”, explained the Director of Innovation.
Alongside these three well-established technologies, he reveals that they are also beginning to ‘experiment’ with artificial intelligence. “We’ve held a number of meetings with companies such as Microsoft to seek their guidance on how to integrate it, because it’s not just a matter of buying technology; it also requires a cultural shift, training, development and a thorough understanding of how to use it.”
In this regard, they are already looking into the use of [Microsoft’s] Copilot in airport emergency plans, “where very lengthy documents are handled and those implementing them need to be familiar with all the procedures”, as well as its use in training programmes or in the legal sphere.
However, he makes it clear that these are early-stage ideas they will gradually incorporate as technology advances and that his division’s ideation and entrepreneurship team is responsible for ‘monitoring’ them. An area that seeks to identify trends emerging in various sectors and, if these fit within their strategy, to adapt and implement them within their processes.
Open innovation and an accelerator
At Aena, “innovation is both a strategy for remaining competitive and a means of generating new business opportunities and improving efficiency”, said Cañón. There are two programmes in place to identify and incorporate new ideas and projects: the Innova Awards, aimed at employees, and the Aena Ventures incubator and accelerator.
The first of these programmes is now in its fifth year; with it, the company encourages its staff to put forward proposals to improve various aspects of airport operations. This has led to use cases such as a photovoltaic floor for charging devices in T4 at Barajas Airport and a programme at Valencia Airport to reduce CO₂ emissions through the efficient use of air conditioning.
Aena Ventures closed its second call for applications on 31 July. Whilst the winning projects are being selected, solutions by the winners of the first edition are already being implemented: Airport AI, which has developed the chatbot, is now fully operational; Chinespain, which provides services to Chinese tourists at their destination; and Dubz, which offers a home luggage collection and drop-off service, meaning the passenger simply has to collect it at their final destination.
Finally, Meep, a company that provides transport services linking airports with cities. “More than 150,000 unique users have interacted with the platform since January, and we hope it will evolve from being purely informative to becoming transactional,” said Cañón.
These initiatives largely fall within the third strategic pillar of its Innovation Plan: ‘Beyond the Airport’, which focuses on exploring new business areas related to sustainable mobility. (Remember that the other two are passenger insights and the efficient use of resources.)
“Until not so long ago, airports were infrastructure serving the airlines, but they have now become an active and strategic player in initiatives such as SESAR (Single European Sky ATM Research)”, said the executive. A public-private partnership through which Europe is shaping the R&D programme for the modernisation of air traffic control in the region, and in which Aena is leading two working groups.
“Innovation is an opportunity to continue to maintain our leadership as the world’s leading airport operator”, argued Cañón. And this is being implemented at all levels, in a way that cuts across the entire organisation, starting with the division that Luis Cañón has been heading since April.
Digitalisation and sustainability
In 2019, Aena set up a corporate division to drive forward key strategic projects, such as innovation, digital transformation, pursuit of passenger excellence and sustainability: the Division of Innovation, Sustainability and Customer Experience. This department includes the Innovation and Customer Experience Division, headed by Luis Cañón, who oversees three sub-divisions: Ideation and Entrepreneurship, Applied Innovation and Customer Experience.
Furthermore, as part of its commitment to the environment and society, it is already developing its Climate Action Plan as part of a Sustainability Strategy, which sets out measures to decarbonise its airports. All of this aims to progressively reduce CO₂ emissions with the ultimate goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2026 and achieving net-zero emissions across the entire airport network by 2040 – ten years ahead of the sector target, set for 2050.
Source: El Español.
