Gatwick flies into the cloud

The system, which is called VisionAir, is accessible across the facility from over 1,000 ‘cloud-based screens’ via a web browser. According to the airport, the technology also enables the sharing of content such as weather and disruption information between partner agencies.

Speaking of the roll-out, Gatwick chief information officer Cathal Corcoran said: “Our vision was to develop a new generation system that is reliable, scalable and accessible from anywhere. The solution we now have in place is resilient, flexible and low cost, with highly optimised data transfer.

“We are transforming the way airport information is communicating, and will soon allow passengers to interact with chat bots using Facebook Messenger, Whatsapp and other popular apps.

“We are also exploring the use of the Internet of Things for improving situational awareness, as well as machine learning for accurately predicting flight departure times. We recently became the world’s first airport to deploy augmented reality wayfinding.”

The VisionAir project began in 2015, coinciding with the implementation of Gatwick’s cloud migration strategy. The solution was developed by AirportLabs.