Airport smart trolleys’ with screens to guide passengers at GMR Hyderabad International Airport.

The GMR led Hyderabad International Airport, is India’s first airport to deploy IoT for tracking and maintaining the availability of baggage trolleys for passengers in real time across the airport. It has introduced ‘IoT enabled Smart Baggage Trolleys’

The digital technology leap taken by the Hyderabad Airport is in line with the flagship Digital India Programme of Government of India. 

Trolley requirements at the airport are very dynamic in nature. There are two critical zones where the availability of trolleys for passengers is vital – Departures Ramp and Baggage Belts at the Arrivals. As per IATA (International Air Transport Association), a global organization supporting aviation with global standards for airline safety, security, efficiency, and sustainability, there should be at least 160 trolleys available for 1 million passengers at any airport.

The airport has deployed a LoRa (Long Range) IOT platform for the Airport Baggage Trolley Project. The entire fleet of 3000 baggage trolleys have been enabled with IoT technology. With this technology in place, there will be a substantial reduction in the waiting time of passengers for baggage trolleys and will ensure its availability in sufficient numbers in real time. Trolley management and replenishment will be based on the requirement at various areas across the airport enhancing efficiency and passenger experience while making way for smooth operations as well.

The smart trolleys which come attached with a tab-like screen are helpful in guiding travellers around the airport. The screen on the trolley displays important information like the airport access routes, flight timings, directions to gates, product information, locations of stores.

Benefits

The Smart Trolley Management system has the capability to plan baggage trolleys according to the predictive analyses of estimated departure and arrival passenger loads.

It preps the operations team with proactive planning with real-time dashboards/information on the availability of the number of baggage trolleys in different airport areas, ensuring its availability for the passengers at the right place and at the right time. It gives ease of accessing data as it is compatible with mobile, desktop, and laptop making it user-friendly.

With an inbuilt alert mechanism, in case any trolley is carried out of a “no airport zone” area, it generates an alert message tipping off the location for necessary action which can then be taken to retrieve.