Airport and Ground Handling Resource Management Systems

Passenger and baggage misconnections are a costly factor in daily aviation. In order to deliver a tool that helps to reduce these costs and improve passengers’ experience, the German-based aviation IT specialist INFORM developed an intelligent software to foresee critical connections and find the best available solutions.

INFORM’s “GroundStar Connect” analyzes real time flight and transfer information to identify critical connections for passengers and baggage as soon as possible. The system is designed to be used by airlines and handling service providers that need to manage connections at hub airports. The system uses the most recent information to analyze flight, passenger, and baggage information and to show the user the transfer situation in real-time. Alerts are issued for critical situations, flights and passengers that might be affected by a misconnection are highlighted and alternative flights for rebooking are proposed.

To identify whether connections can be made or not, a travel network along with travel speed estimates are used to calculate the travel time for the transfer. Potential bottlenecks such as security, immigration controls, and baggage handling are taken into account to produce an accurate assessment.

Interfaces to the booking and check-in systems ensure that individual passenger connection information is retrieved. Connection and transfer times are then combined with information on changed, cancelled and delayed flight information. The comparison of detailed passenger information with the flight information results in an alert wherever the system determines a risk of misconnection. Information on flight reservation status of alternative flights as well as passenger relevant attributes such as booking class, frequent flyer status, passengers with reduced mobility, etc. are considered as well in order to be able to react appropriately.

GS Connect is an innovation completely designed and developed according to operational requirements which complements INFORM’s GS HubControl system and may also function in a stand-alone mode.