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Investigating Technology Application and New Norm in Aviation Industry: Airport
Perspective
Nor Aida Abdul Rahman
1*, Muhamad Azrin Akmal Md Sa’don
2, Nurhayati Mohd
Nur
3, Suzari Abdul Rahim
4, Md Fauzi Ahmad
51* Universiti Kuala Lumpur, Malaysian Institute of Aviation Technology (UniKL MIAT), Malaysia 2Universiti Kuala Lumpur, Malaysian Institute of Aviation Technology (UniKL MIAT), Malaysia 3Universiti Kuala Lumpur, Malaysian Institute of Aviation Technology (UniKL MIAT), Malaysia 4Graduate School of Business, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Malaysia
5Faculty of Technology Management, Universiti Tun Hussein Onn, Malaysia
1noraida@unikl.edu.my, 2akmalsadon@gmail.com ,3nurhayatimn@unikl.edu.my ,4suzari@usm.edu.my
,mohdfauzi@uthm.edu.my5
Article History: Received: 10 January 2021; Revised: 12 February 2021; Accepted: 27 March 2021; Published
online: 10 May 2021
Abstract: Coronavirus (Covid19) pandemic has brought many challenges across industries globally. Among the most affected
industry are aviation, shipping and logistics, as well as tourism sector. It this point of time, it is very difficult to identify what are the best practices for each organization in every industry could take in responding to this external factor. This situation has created surge demand to understand the essential technology that could help to respond to this pandemic which has the potential to fulfil customized requirement during this pandemic. This study aim to investigate the use of technology that could help the aviation industry to respond to this pandemic affect with a proper control and management. Specifically, this study introduces the artificial intelligence technology at the airport. To conclude, more research is needed to provide further evidence on the utilization of technology and how each technology could help the industry to be ore effective and efficient in responding to the pandemic Covid 19 challenges.
Keywords: Aviation, Technology, Airport, Artificial intelligence, Covid 19, Pandemic
1. Introduction
In the recent study by Ivanov (2020) and Rahman et al (2020), it is important for all industries including aviation to observe the risk of supply chain disruption and demand fluctuation due to pandemic outbreak such as natural disaster like tsunami, earthquakes, as well as health pandemic. The current pandemic of Covid-19 has brought many negative impact to many business sector including aviation players. Aviation industry which consist of multiplayers such as the airline, airport, airline caterer, air cargo provider, ground handler, maintenance and manufacturing are all affected. The aviation industry are experiencing gloomy downturn of business operation. As declared by International Air Transport Association (IATA), travel ban will not stop disease from spreading. A clear understanding of supply chain activity among the aviation players are vital (Rahman et al 2020; Rahim et al. 2020). Additionally, identifying the right technology to utilize are also important to help the aviation players to grow again and improve its efficiency and decision making process. As highlighted by Whitelaw et al (2020), the technology application may become a key vehicle to improve industry pandemic preparedness and response.
There are various drivers that leads to the success of any organization such as environmental factor, political, economy, society, technology (Rahman & Ahmad, 2020) top management team networking and diversity (Salleh, Fareed, Yusoff & Saad, 2018; Salleh, Fareed, Yusoff & Saad, 2016) and employees’ contributions (Raza, Noor, & Fareed, 2020) structure and systems of the organization (Fareed, Isa, Ahmad, & Laeeq, 2016) competent and capable HR (Fareed, Isa, Noor, 2016; Fareed, Noor, Isa, Shahzad, & Laeeq, 2016). But among all above mentioned driving forces, the new wave of technology in this era has transform many business activities to be more solid, fast, reliable and efficient.
There are many technologies discussed in past studies namely 3d printing, augmented reality, robotics, big data, intelligent manufacturing, artificial intelligence (AI) and many more (Koh et al, 2019; Abdul Rahman et al 2020; Rahman et al 2019; Mosterman and Zander 2016; Lee et al., 2014). As emphasized by Brennan et al. (2015), all of these technology could be used to improve the performance of supply chain in many industries.
Artificial intelligence or known as AI technology is one of the popular technology used in many discipline including manufacturing, medical and aviation. Among the areas of artificial intelligence in discussed in the past literature are focused on the airline sector. According to Kulida and Lebedev (2020), artificial intelligence in the
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airline sector are used to support many areas such as intelligent crew interface, optimization of air space structure, airline training, automation and autonomy of management, collecting and analyzing air traffic information and many more. Below Table 1 highlights the areas of AI technology in the aviation mainly in airline,Table 1: Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology areas No Areas of AI use with regards to airline sector 1 Supporting operational decision by the crew 2 Collecting and analyzing air traffic data 3 Optimizing flight routes of aircraft 4 Use for training
5 Detecting real time air borne matters 6 Automation and autonomy of management Source: Developed by the authors
This research will extend more on the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the aviation sector by focusing more on the airport operation and relate with its important during this Covid-19 pandemic. Basically, this research introduces the introduction of artificial intelligence technology at the airport, which can boost day-to-day operations, considering the current outbreak of a pandemic covid-19. It is expected that there has been a new approach to airport passenger handling that blends biometric technology with existing airport processes for instance. With that, this study is developed to achieve the following research objectives:
i. To investigate how aviation operator including airport, react to supply chain disruption during pandemic Covid 19
ii. To explore how artificial intelligence (AI) technology could improve new strategy developed in the industry from the airport perspective
iii. To recommend the suitable technology for airport operator to improve their supply chain
2. Literature Review
Aviation industry and Pandemic Covid-19
It is acknowledged that pandemic Covid-19 has changed the distribution number or travelers, destination and flight patterns worldwide and the situation recently are remains in constant flux. The coronavirus of 2020 has dealt a significant blow to the airline industry. Prior to Covid 19, fuel prices were low and demand was healthy. The industry is struggling to thrive today. Essentially, aviation industry is one of the important industry in any country as it supports other industry such as import export business, manufacturing, logistics as well as tourism industry. As reported by ICAO (2018, p.68), the aviation industry supports USD2.7 trillion of the world’s gross domestic GDP. The ecosystem of aviation industry in Malaysia is consist of multiplayer including the regulators, policy maker and the customer. The aviation sector is wide and ranging from general aviation, manufacturing, maintenance repair and overhaul (MROs), travel agent, airport operator, airline, as well as airline cargo and airline caterer.
As highlighted by International Air Transport Association (IATA), travel ban will not stop the disease. As such all members in aviation industry including airport operator should have a clear understanding of their supply chain disruption. Risk assessment and risk management activity are part of the key effort and focus to avoid business suffer. Recently, Gold (2019) and Pavlov et al (2019) mentioned that screening system performance and screening operation are among the main issue to focus in supply chain activity. The utilization of AI technology may help the industry to improve it supply chain disruption.
AI Technology
The use of AI (Artificial Intelligence) technology in commercial aviation has introduced some major improvements in the way flights are conducted today. The world's leading airline service providers are now using AI tools and technology to offer more customized travel experience to their customers. AI will play many more important roles in the aviation industry from building AI-powered airport kiosks to using AI for automating airline operations and security checks.
The value of AI technology is highly emphasized in aviation industry (Rahman et al 2019b). Industry sectors in aerospace particularly are natural adopters of cutting edge technologies apart from transportation, automotive, telecommunication, electrical and electronics. Technology has a ubiquitous presence in a day to day lives for both consumer and business organizations. While for aviation researcher, these new and emergent technologies present
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exciting opportunities to manage these exchanges through the ability to collect and access large volume of data from the passengers, market and sales which far beyond the breadth of the traditional aviation market research for example. Yet, it is seemingly the only way aviation industry players can remain relevant and competitive. As emphasized by Ashworth and Free (2006), there are serious concern by industry including aviation players and higher education players regarding sustainability and technology implication to the society (Filho et al., 2015).Engineers also found that AI can support the aviation industry with computer vision , machine learning, robotics and natural language processing. Artificial intelligence has been found to be highly potent, and numerous studies have shown how the use of artificial intelligence can bring about major changes in aviation. Few airlines are now using artificial intelligence for predictive analytics, pattern detection, auto scheduling, targeted ads, and customer feedback analysis showing promising results for improved flight experience. A new study shows that aviation professionals are thinking about using artificial intelligence to track pilot voices for the trouble-free flying experience of passengers. This technology is planned to bring major changes to the world of aviation.
3. Research methodology: Qualitative study
This research adopts qualitative study and inductive approach. Qualitative is the best method for this research since it offers in depth exploration of the subject under investigation. As stressed by Abdul Rahman et al (2014), Spens and Kovacs (2006), Abdul Rahman (2012), qualitative inductive reasoning is a method that allow for deep exploration and comprehensive understanding of the phenomena. Kadir and Noor (2015) cited in Fareed, Ahmad, Salleh and Saoula (2019) stated that qualitative field studies could help society understand the complexities that business organizations face today. Following Bennis and Nanus (1985), our semi structured interviews were conducted with informants from the middle managerial level. This is vital as they had “interpretational” roles and technical knowledge in the area. In order to ensure the credibility of the data, we performed ‘courtroom questioning’ style as suggested by Eisenhardt and Graebner (2007). With this style, every respondent respond were encouraged to top up with an example to support their commentary and concentrate on facts and events, rather than on their interpretation of them.
4. Research Findings
Effect of The Covid-19 Outbreak On Day to Day Operation: From Airport Perspective
Based on the interview made and document review from desk research performed in this study, Covid-19 pandemic is a genuinely unpredictable disease that has affected the world and has become a major wake-up call for all business sectors, particularly those with a global scale of operations. Covid-19 has strongly affected airlines and airport operators in a standstill situation where short-term and long-term solutions need to be sought, given that operational and maintenance costs are continuous on a daily basis. There were drop humongous revenue as at least 70% of total revenue began due to a dramatic decrease in passenger, consumer and stakeholder traffic. Therefore, by implementing business continuity plans, which detail how services and critical activities are sustained throughout this crisis.
Airport Operator react to supply chain disruption due to Covid-19 Pandemic.
From the findings from industry as well as desk research, what we can conclude for this findings are, digital transformation is an urgent need for all airports across the world. We found that several Malaysian airports were at full capacity. As such, the airport operators must ensure that any changes are adequately handled in order to avoid disrupting the flow of passengers. Traditionally, the only way airports could accommodate more passengers was to extend their facilities. It is agreeable that new technologies adoption such as AI enable airport operators to look at improving efficiency by redesigning their operations and processes, such as biometric technology. The technology must be incorporated and applied in a humanized way for example, without over-automating and losing track of human interaction and terminal participation. It must also consider the journey of the consumer and how technology affects them in the process.
The technology itself should not sound very robotic from a passenger's point of view. Among the latest made announcement by the airport operator are mobile applications to help passengers prepare their airport trip to alleviate travel stress. These are all part of the airport operator initiative, which is a comprehensive framework for the modernization of 39 airports under the responsibility of the airport operator in Malaysia. Powering these efforts is a centralized digital platform known as the 'data lake' which serves as a central data repository that all airport operator can use to incorporate technologies such as Big Data Analytics, Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence. Dealing with large amounts of data, it is important for airports to be aware of information security
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and governance, especially with the entry into force of the Malaysian Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA) and the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).Additionally, in the coming years, airport will continue to look at various technologies, including 3D sensors, single travel tokens, biometric IDs, predictive baggage handling solutions, automation, block chain, flow monitoring, e-commerce, and more. At the moment, although Airport 4.0 is designed as a five-year framework, the officer stressed that the key is to choose the right flow and technology without paralysis.
How AI technology could improve new strategy and airport operation
With regards to our second research objectives on how Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology could improve new strategy and operation, the following discussion and elaboration is based on the findings that we get from the airport personnel. As informed by the respondents, technology is always a key strategy in gaining competitive advantage and sustainability. The aviation players refer technology to different kind of technology application depending on their core business activity and their operation. With regards to our findings from airport perspective, the informant told us that AI technology already exist since 60 years ago, but has recently gained ground as a result of advances in computing and data access.
Technology such as deep learning or machine learning helps the airport operator to establish their own apps that able to learn independently and provide guidance on complex issues. In relation to technology development in the aviation sector, the interviewees agree that every new technology introduced must be approved by both local and international authority. The respondent added that aviation sector is not new to the virtues of AI. Recently, technology has gained traction in sectors such as smart maintenance, innovation and predictive tools, supply chains and customer services. The sector is now eager to find more AI applications, leading some European countries, in particular Ireland, Finland, Cyprus, Luxembourg, Sweden and the Netherlands.
Generally, the aviation industry has started to harness the potential of machine learning algorithms for non-safety critical applications. Significant attempts have recently been made to adapt the current certification process to the unique characteristics of AI applications. The focus on cyber protection has also been increased with AI. The aviation industry has now looked at the potential evolution of the use of AI, in particular the development of cognitive joint human-machine systems.
The underlying of AI technology is not about the interaction with the passengers only, but also between the airport operation, safety, as well as security. In fact, this technology is also supported by IATA initiative which called as IATA fast travel to create uniform standard for better passenger facilitation at the airport. What is more, the AI technology also helps the airport operator to increase and boost predictions of travelling passengers with more sophisticated approaches.
Future of Aviation Industry
The long-term outlook for aviation and travel remains bright. The underlying global integration, economic growth and growing consumer income and leisure time that has powered demand for these services faster than GDP growth for decades should continue to do so as the world recovers from the Covid-19 shock. The manner in which the industry serves the growth as it develops out of the crisis will rely on five main factors. Below table 2 highlights the five challenges of the pandemic covid-19 challenges to the aviation players including airport operators.
Table 2: Future of Aviation Industry after Pandemic Covid-19
No Future Aviation Issue
1 The volume of travelers will slowly developed and improved in 3 to 5 years
2 The recovery of prices would also lag at least for a year in a recovery period
3 Business travel may recover faster than leisure travel at the constant lower pace
4 Long-haul narrow-body aircraft would change the essence of international networks by replacing point-to - point flight hubs and spoke models.
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5 Regional travel will move from a costly business-oriented model to acheaper leisure-oriented model.
5. Conclusion and Future Research Agenda
To conclude, the recent wave of technology has brought some limitation and contribution which open up new opportunity for scholars to further study on the technology development and its impact in the aviation perspectives in relation to recovery strategy from pandemic Covid-19. This study call for more research to focus on the technology application in relation to post pandemic recovery strategy in the future. The application of technology in near future could be viewed from disruption to existing business model.
6. Acknowledgement
This work was supported by UniKL short term research grant (STRG).
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