Genève Aéroport cuts security wait times by half

Genève Aéroport, Switzerland’s second busiest airport, has cut security wait times by half whilst increasing passenger satisfaction fivefold.

Genève Aéroport (GVA) has installed Bluetooth/Wi-Fi sensors and incorporated best practice security checkpoint planning to cut passenger wait times at security by 51 percent, from an average of 7 minutes to 3.5 minutes. In addition, the airport has increased the number of days with satisfactory performance more than five times (from 54 days in 2014 to 297 days in 2015).

Genève Aéroport reduced wait times from 7 minutes to 3.5 minutes

In order to establish an enhanced passenger experience, GVA improved the existing security checkpoint layout and process and increased the number of staff in order to cater for rising passenger numbers.

In 2014, a strategic decision was taken to optimise the planning and performance evaluation of the security checkpoints at GVA. The airport adopted a combined solution from Denmark-based Veovo and Copenhagen Optimization (C-OPT), to optimise the utilisation of the resources and create operational and managerial visibility with the help of real-time measurements and advanced data intelligence.

C-OPT will be delivering daily security checkpoint plans on a no cure – no pay contract. The work of C-OPT includes passenger forecasts converted into a lane opening plan securing the waiting time SLA as well as staff demand plans. The Passenger Predictabilitysolution and the C-OPT Security Performance Evaluation Tool, also known as SPET, allows GVA to evaluate the performance of the checkpoints on a daily basis.

Insights enable the airport to evaluate why queues evolved like they do

The combined solution measures and analyses all the key factors for queue development, such as real-time queue and dwell time measurements, using Passenger Predictability Bluetooth / Wi-Fi sensors, passenger forecasts vs actual, how actual opening of lanes complies with the plan and production per lane. The insights enable the airport to evaluate why the queue evolved like it did and to analyse where to focus on improvements.

With this information, the airport is able to quickly pinpoint the drivers of poor performance, such as inaccurate forecasting or the lack of staff. It has enabled GVA to better plan staffing patterns and response promptly and effectively to irregular operations and disruptions, preventing bottlenecks.

“The security planning organization has been taken to new levels with accurate and trusted plans. This has allowed us to plan for the days ahead, but also to make unique daily plans for a whole year in advance. This has significantly increased the quality of the budgeting and capacity planning.” says Ruben Jimenez, Head of Security at Genève Aéroport.

No passengers are allowed to wait more than 20 minutes

The improvements have enabled GVA to set new ambitious standards of service. Today the airport aims for 85 percent of all passengers experiencing less than seven minutes of waiting time in the security process and that no passengers are allowed to wait more than 20 minutes.

“Passenger Predictability and C-OPT have provided us with powerful tools which have allowed us to gain a good understanding of the security check-point dynamics. In combination with the operational experience of our security staff, we work in a more and more proactive way. And most importantly our customers benefit directly by getting better service. We are looking forward to have Veovo and C-OPT by our side on our way forward.” says Anita Filli, Project Manager Landside Operations.

“The cooperation with Genève Aéroport has brought significant results for C-OPT as well as for Genève Aéroport. We are looking forward to continuing our cooperation in the future and enable Genève Aéroport to adopt our approach to planning through the use of the suite of planning tools from C-OPT” says Kasper Hounsgaard, Managing Partner at Copenhagen Optimization.

“We value the long-term cooperation with Genève Aéroport and their professional and innovative approach in using data to ensure efficient operations and passenger satisfaction. It has been a privilege to work with such dedicated people, from the first Passenger Predictability installations at Central Security to now include several other airport processes, and from being used solely for measurements to also include prediction. We look forward to be a part of Genève Aéroport ´s ongoing plan in becoming one of Europe’s most progressive and service-minded airports,” says Kim Hermansen, Engineer at Veovo.