Dubai: AI To Bring Aircraft Gates Closer, Reduce Walking At Al Maktoum Airport

Dubai Airports is looking into deploying artificial intelligence (AI) technology at the Al Maktoum International Airport, which will allow it to reallocate gates to minimise the walking distance and help passengers overcome the vastness of the new airport, its chief executive said.

Paul Griffiths said the airport will be able to do many things in the future due to the new modern technologies, which are not possible today.

“Everyone keeps saying that artificial intelligence will replace jobs, and we will be interacting with bots. But people want to feel that human emotion and connection. The idea of the technology is to take away all the things we don't like about airports. Just needing the things that we did like, such as dwell spaces, lounges, hospitality,” Griffiths said during a panel discussion at the Dubai City Briefing, organised by the Dubai Department of Economy and Tourism.

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“The whole ethos of what we're doing today will be dramatically different from the airport experience. The great thing is that the technology in the background can do amazing things that we can't do today,” he added.

Citing an example, he said the airport has to allocate fixed gates to aircraft at the moment.“But if you can analyse using AI, we can reallocate all the gates of inbound aircraft, and can minimise the walking distance and connecting time between flights on a dynamic basis. That is going to be advantageous in terms of customer service and overcoming the vastness of the new airports.”

The Dubai government earlier announced that the entire operations of Dubai International Airport will be relocated to Al Maktoum International Airport in 2032, making it the world's largest international airport, serving over 260 million passengers annually once it is fully completed.

Dubai Airports is looking to implement the latest available technologies across all touch points prior to the opening of the Al Maktoum International Airport. This will place the upcoming most modern tools and allow handling more passengers and aircraft, and a faster turnaround period for flights.

Spread over 70 square kilometres, Al Maktoum Airport will have five parallel runways and over 400 aircraft gates, reflecting the magnanimity of the airport.

The decision to relocate operations to Al Maktoum comes as Dubai International airport (DXB) is reaching its full capacity. It is expected to reach the 100-million passenger mark in one and a half years. With hundreds of aircraft which will be added to Emirates and flydubai fleets over the coming decade, Dubai requires a much bigger airport.

Paul Griffiths added that the technology is moving very quickly, and they want to put customers at the very heart of the entire airport and airline experience.

“The challenge for the next few years is how you keep your growth going at DXB (Dubai International Airport), because like squeezing a lemon, the first 85 per cent of the juice is the easy bit, but getting that final 15 per cent is a challenge,” he said, adding that the idea is to take away all those awful processes that airport operators have been imposing on their customers for so long.

“You can take away check-in, baggage handling, security, and immigration, put them in the background, so our customers don't have to wait in queues. They can just enter the airport and instantly feel they're in a hospitality environment. That's the whole idea. It is not only good for our customers and the experience they get, but it's great for our business,” he added.

“New technology will really make DWC (Dubai World Central) something that we can all be very proud of as an industry, as a city and as a community,” he concluded.

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