Airport services soon in both Kannada, English

Airport services soon in both Kannada, English

Soon-to-start kiosks at BIA will provide passengers access to range of info

Vinita A Shetty

The Bengaluru International Airport (BIA) signed an agreement with Moveo Systems to deploy a first-of-its-kind multilingual human interactive airport solution. Vinita A Shetty finds out how this system is expected to aid passengers, in conversation with Sankalp Saxena, founder and chief executive officer of Moveo Systems.

What is a multi-lingual human interactive airport solution?
Our technology platform supports applications in multiple languages. The Interactive Banking Portal deployed in Indian Bank branches, for example, runs in English, Hindi and Tamil. The Bengaluru airport kiosks will support operations in English and Kannada. We believe that accessibility to technology should not be limited to those conversant with English. Our solutions reach out to a range of users, offering as it does a range of language options.

As a point of contact, what sort of information will these kiosks offer air travellers?
In addition to providing up-to-date flight information, it will provide travellers an opportunity to offer feedback on their experience of the airport or airline; information on the services offered at the airport and the regulations will be available. Interactive airport maps will help locate retail shops, ATMs, airline lounges, etc. All useful contact numbers, real-time news, and explanation of different aspects of the Bengaluru airport will be made available. There will also be weather and city guides in the software.
When will the new system start functioning, and how many such kiosks are planned?
The kiosks will be deployed in the next couple of months. We have identified 20 locations for the initial deployment, across both the domestic and the international areas. We will be reviewing the number of kiosks deployed on an on-going basis with BIA.

The mTracker application has been developed to record passenger feedback. What sort of issues is the system equipped to deal with in the feedback mechanism? How will it help the airport and airlines better their services?
The mTracker application was first deployed at Chhattrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA) in Mumbai two years ago. In Mumbai, it tracks 39 key airport attributes across seven service categories for each terminal. The data has been instrumental in the planning of services for the new terminal being designed. Our engine captures passenger compliments, complaints and comments from the kiosks, CSIA website and paper forms available at the airport and generates a set of consolidated metrics for airport and airline performance. Feedback received is automatically routed to the respective stakeholder (airport, airline, etc) and the system provides an easy-to-use mechanism for the stakeholder to respond to the passenger feedback. This would thus provide a loop of feedback and points for different service providers to consider, and set about improving the services they offer.