Rezcomm - Airport Travel, Parking and Ancillary Pre Book Systems

While browsing LinkedIn I spotted a question in one of the groups regarding QR and Bar Codes at Airports as aids to non aviation revenue generation, as the answer is of interest to a wider audience I have decided to post it here as well.

Best wishes for 2015. Does anybody have examples of applications of bar codes/QR codes for revenue generation in busy airports? I'm interested particularly in any cases involving car park revenue generation? Thanks Liam

Liam Keilthy Managing Director at Parking Consultants Ltd

At Rezcomm we support the many types of barcodes used in the fulfilment of not least parking, security fast track and lounge access for customers. In addition to the primary products that the customer buys on line or via their smartphone or tablet we attach vouchers that include barcodes. The secondary barcodes can be recognised by the partners (F&B or other services such as currency exchange) that are added to the print at home and on mobile tickets. This provides an excellent channel and a tracking tool for the effectiveness of the promotion based on issuing and redemption.

To simplify the integration to both new and existing hardware we generate the barcode in a range ways. Firstly we generate the codes that are compatible and recognised by the system that will read the code and pick up the product rules that are attached to the code – typically used in parking systems. Where an existing system sells products on site, typically through kiosks or existing EPOS solutions, we can offer the product for sale online and we make the remote booking and request the associated barcode. This is a low cost option with no disruption to the existing investment in hardware or the service that is delivered using a barcode as the identifier. Finally we offer the simplest integration where we integrate with large airport system providers such as SITA and we produce the barcode and they send it back to Rezcomm for validation. When we receive the barcode we compare the business rules for the use of the product we host and provide the validation or rejection. The business rules are configured to prevent misuse (such as anti-pass back at the security fast track or lounge) and any other type of abuse of the barcode to redeem the product or service.

It’s also important to consider the type of barcode format used depending on the operating environment and how the ticket is present i.e. print at home or on mobile. Although QR is popular and recognised the Aztec format is the most tolerant with c30% of redundancy in the code itself resulting in high read rates but also the amount of data (which can be relatively high) that can be included within the Aztec format barcode itself.

My view is barcode is the way to go for the simple reason that if it’s good for retail and other mass markets for the consumers it’s therefore a good identifier for the foreseeable. It’s tried and tested, low cost to produce and read, easy to integrate and been used for decades and recognised by the consumer as the identifier for how to use or redeem it.