Whilst not necessarily ones to blow our own trumpets, sometimes it is necessary to let people know what we have been up to, the progress that we are making and how this will benefit our customers. As we look forward to the year ahead, this is one of those times. 2024 was an intensive year of work to build out and develop our Smart Airports Tracker. It is a highly granular data service tracking the installation of kiosks, egates, biometrics and identity management in airports around the world at an individual contract level.
Airports have been developing and evolving over the past 10-20 years, initially building in capacity and wanting to process increasing numbers of passengers in what are often physically constrained environments. More recently, the priority has been to make the most of more limited resources and personnel to recover and then grow again. In both phases it has been a case of operating and working smarter – and automation and self-service has been at the forefront (along with improved IT integration with the cloud and the generation and use of data).
Here at Valour, we have been researching and tracking the market for a number of years, following the installation of kiosks, egates, self-bag drop, pods and totems as airports and airlines evolve their processes and facilitation of passenger from arrival at check-in through to boarding the plane.
A collective group effort amongst several of the Valour team and a lot of hard work has culminated in the latest iteration of the Tracker. We will work to continue to develop it further but currently it details over 1,800 individual contracts and installations. This level of detail makes it unique as a source of information on the market, breaking it down by system integrator, OEM, touchpoint, product, biometric modality, region, country and volume.
The improved level of detail and accuracy is demonstrated in the content and output. It provides unrivalled granularity and its evolution is evidenced by the figures. We currently estimate that it identifies and records the following proportions of the market:
- Check in kiosks – 25.1% (up from 23.2%)
- Self-bag drop – 76.3% (up from 71.6%)
- Pre-security egates – 77.7% (down from 78.4%)
- Self-boarding egates – 79.1% (up from 49.9%)
- Immigration kiosks – 76.8% (down from 120.5%)
- ABC egates – 92.6% (up from 67.2%)
- Boarding pods and totems – 47.1% (new addition)
- Immigration pods and totems – 71.6% (new addition)
There are areas where we will be focusing to make further advances and add detail; check in kiosks being the obvious one; the new additions of pods and totems for boarding in is another. The challenge with check in kiosks is that it is by far the largest application (with over 38,000 units) and so widespread, there is a lot of ground to cover.
However, it can certainly be stated that this service has improved the accuracy of our research and in tandem with our future-looking report, The Seamless Passenger Journey in Smart Airports, we have been able to gain greater insight into the market. Pre-security egates are now known to be present in greater volumes than before and whilst the coverage is slightly down, the number identified in use is significantly greater. Similarly, the two opposing forces affecting immigration kiosks are now more accurately recorded, specifically the removal of APC kiosks in the USA and the installation of EES kiosks in EU countries.
We will continue to develop the Smart Airports Tracker, to improve the coverage and enable greater engagement – and we are actively working with companies to achieve this. By engaging with us, companies can ensure better representation in the Tracker, boosting their market share and recognition (as well as qualify for a third off the annual subscription). Currently, this includes a number of the biggest vendors, leading sector specialists and system integrators.
Additionally, we are working to make it more usable and provide more benefit to subscribers. A new front-end is in development to help visualise the data and make selection and cutting the data easier, with dynamic outputs and charts. Also, a new Power BI dashboard which we will host as we aim to provide more interaction and usability for subscribers, supporting whichever their preferred method to make use of this highly detailed service.
We remain open to further suggestions as to how we can enhance and tailor the Smart Airports Tracker to meet our clients’ needs, whether that is gaining market insight, competitive intelligence, identifying opportunities, developing market understanding, identifying trends, or as a sales and marketing tool. Contact us for more information, to request a sample of data or to arrange a walk-through demonstration.