Aero-Domains support RFID in the Air Transport Community I

RFID (radio frequency identification devices) technology can bring substantial benefits to the Air Transport Community in the form of cost reductions, improvements in productivity, customer services and safety, but also as a means to generate new revenues. As an emerging technology there are still many barriers to community-wide adoption, one of them being the risk associated with the deployment of RFID infrastructure and development of applications. This is a risk that can be substantially reduced through the introduction of a shared infrastructure and service.

Shared services

offer one crucial advantage. By sharing infrastructure and know-how to operate business processes common to many in the Air Transport community, individual members can cut the cost of building data processing networks for common processes and instead focus on differentiation and the provision of innovative, reliable services to passengers and cargo customers. The same logic applies to adoption of RFID technology, and it is only a matter of time before community services and shared facilities for processing RFID data are introduced.

A number of RFID projects are already under way – such as RFID-based baggage handling to speed up processing and accuracy at an airport (e.g. Hong Kong) or the tracking of cargo containers by one carrier or alliance (e.g. Lufthansa's joint venture with Trenstar). Some early adopters in the air transport community can demonstrate business cases for investment in RFID technology on their own, while others struggle. As a result, today's deployment of RFID technology will not help a bag stranded in a foreign airport find its way to its destination and a container will be only tracked if it moves through the premises of the airline/handling company which tagged it.

However, the community expects that, every piece of baggage will be tracked eventually with the help of RFID technology, perhaps from the traveller's home or office through to its destination. While RFID offers the potential of improvement in the processing of bags at the airport, the greatest benefit of the technology will be its ability to be integrated with existing IT systems. Technology, coupled with community standards, will allow systems at any airport to identify immediately and automatically a mishandled piece of baggage, collect handling instructions from the airline responsible for the bag and route it to its correct destination.

Similar benefits and more are expected from handling cargo and containers such as ULDs,(unit loading devices ) or the management of other asses, used at the airport (e.g. vehicles of all kind) or within an aircraft ( e.g. catering trolleys, flight jackets, oxygen tanks etc..)

Boeing and Airbus are promoting the RFID tagging of aircraft parts, to allow tracking and tracing, to facilitate maintenance and to ensure that no grey parts enter the market.


Hans-Peter Oswald
http://www.domainregistry.de/aero-domain.html