Presentation on the "Use of Analytics at Brussels Airport to Improve Passenger Experience" by Stefan Kennis (Brussels Airport), at the BI & Data Analytics Summit on June 13th, 2019 in Diegem (Belgium)

1. Improve passenger experience at Brussels
Airport through (real-time) analytics on a 24/7
cloud architecture

2. My career path: good move?
ICT/Data is core
State-of-the-art IT
Loads of customer data
Construction is core
ICT ran by CFO -> ICT == cost
No pax data
2
Why?

3. Opportunity to become the best airport in Europe, starting from a
greenfield approach in data & analytics
3
Data

4. Make Brussels Airport the SMARTEST airport COMMUNITY
4
Through (automated) data driven decision making across all levels

5. Based on 4 strategic pillars, going far beyond the classical BI
5
Management
Customers
Operational
Partners
BusinessInsights
Data-drivenprocessesDataasanAsset
Personalization

6. A completely new (real-time) analytics architecture on AWS Cloud is
defined
6
TM1

7. Business Focus Technical Focus
The DnA organisation evolved from 10 Pentaho/MicroStrategy FTE
into a team of 40+ business and technically broadly skilled resources
CXO
Analytics Mgr
Commercial &
Supporting
Analytics Mgr
Cargo, ABD &
Operations
Analytics Mgr
Digital
Agile Delivery
Manager
Data Architecture
& Governance
API & Integration
Services
Head of Data &
Analytics
Data Analyst/
Engineer
Information
Architect
Data Governance
Manager
DevOps Engineer
Product Manager
API Architect
Technical Product
Manager
Analyst/Engineer
Tester
DevOps Engineer
Business Analyst Business Analyst Business Analyst
Vacancy
Vacancy
Vacancy
Vacancy
VacancyVacancyVacancy

8. The DnA team works according to a 3-speed delivery model
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WHY?
• Retain Business Value creation
• Maintainability of the Run
WHAT?
• Projects
• Industrialize Prototypes/POC’s
HOW?
• Project & Portfolio Mgt
• ~ 65% capacity
LONG HAUL team(s)
WHY?
• Quick service to business
• Safeguard predictability in SH/LH
WHAT?
• Issue resolution
• Urgent ad-hoc requests
HOW?
• 24h turnaround time
• ~ 15% of capacity
EXPRESS Squad
WHY?
• Create Business Value
• Learn and Fail, then Industrialize
WHAT?
• Prototypes and POC’s
• Quick Business Value
• Complex analytics
HOW?
• Business value in 2-3 weeks
• ~ 20% of capacity
SHORT HAUL Squad

9. Currently 3 Long Haul squads in place, supported by the DnA
Architecture & Governance squad
9
WHY?
• Retain Business Value creation
• Maintainability of the Run
WHAT?
• Projects
• Industrialize Prototypes/POC’s
HOW?
• Project & Portfolio Mgt
• ~ 65% capacity
LONG HAUL team(s)
Commercial & Support
Area
Sales Procurement
Finance Digital
HR 360° pax view
Marketing
Rackham Squad
Airport Operations
Plan
Trident Squad
Operational Area
AeroSmurf Squad
Data Architecture and Governance
• Data Platform Setup
• Data Quality
• Data Security
• …
Magritte Squad
Priorities of capability building driven by Business Needs

10. Let’s have a look at how we drive operational decision-making
through analytics
10
Management
Customers Partners
BusinessInsights
Data-drivenprocessesDataasanAsset
Personalization
Operational

11. The Airport Operations Plan (AOP)
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Optimize efficiency and improve E2E passenger experience?
Based on the flight
schedule and pax arrival
patterns, forecast the
required resources
Execute the plan and
pro-actively take actions
on planning changes
Evaluate the forecast
and actions taken
Define and implement
improvements
Resources to plan:
@Check-in
@Security
@Border Control
@Baggage handling
@Cleaning (toilets)
…

12. Example: pro-actively avoid missed connections

13. Waiting times are predicted in real-time to identify connections at risk
Predicted
waiting time at
security @20:11
Predicted waiting
time at border
control @20:19
Actions:
- Get first from plane
- Give walking directions

14. Actions can be taken to avoid lost connections
14
11
Actions:
- Get first from plane
- Give walking directions
- Give fast lane access
- Ask airline to delay flight

15. We will also improve the experience of pax with lost connections
15
Actions:
- Inform pax when debording
- Ask airline to rebook flight

16. We are the first airport in the world to predict Waiting Times
- BLIP sensors (BLIFI)
- Metal detectors
- Boarding pass scans
FROM
Waiting Time = WT of
person that left the
queue
TO
Waiting Time = WT of
person that entered
the queue
&
Predicted WT =
Expected WT within
30’, 60’, 2h, 4h

17. Conclusions
• Based on the ambition to become the best Airport in Europe, Brussels
Airport decided to strongly invest in data & analytics as a crucial enabler to
reach this ambition
• A 24/7 state-of-the-art data platform is being implemented on AWS cloud
for reasons of flexibility, time-2-market and scalability
• The DnA strategy is going far beyond the classical BI for management and
drives personalization and data-driven decision making in operational
processes
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18. 18
Thank you for being my
passenger today!