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IT Arrives At The Beijing Airport

The technology supporting the Beijing Olympics goes beyond the actual sports venues and support areas. The Beijing Capital International Airport (BCIA), at which hundreds of thousands of athletes, officials, spectators, and media are arriving or will arrive in the coming days, has received an IT makeover as part of the preparation for the big event.

Specifically, an expanded Terminal 3 at BCIA, which began operating in March and is said to be the world's largest airport terminal building, was fitted with IT systems to support the transportation infrastructure needed for the Games.

Given the volume of people who are descending on Beijing for the Olympic events that begin later this week, BCIA realized it needed to build a new terminal to significantly expand capacity while at the same time improving operations at the entire airport, according to Unisys, which in 2005 was awarded a contract by BCIA to develop, integrate, and manage the core systems at Terminal 3.

Unisys developed a Ground Operation Information System (GOIS) that manages the flight information for the entire airport. Unisys says the GOIS continually receives the latest flight-related data from air traffic control, airline systems, various operational systems, and handling agents.

The system stores the information in the airport's operational database and disseminates real-time data to relevant airport systems and key stakeholders in the airport community. GOIS includes a sophisticated resource management component that oversees and allocates airport resources such as stands, gates, check-in counters, and baggage carousels to minimize flight delays.

It also lets airport officials monitor whether the airport is delivering the correct levels of service to airlines and passengers. That will prove useful when the level of visitors rises dramatically over the next few weeks.

Unisys designed the overall integration framework for the new Terminal 3 systems and linked more than 20 core operational systems prior to the terminal's opening. The company helped define the migration strategy for all new IT systems before the gradual transfer of flights to Terminal 3. Airport officials had mandated that the systems migration not affect operations in any of the existing terminals.

Based on its "3D Blueprinting" approach, a modeling application that provides predictions based on business simulations, Unisys consulted officials on the future operational model for BCIA. The airport, located northeast of Beijing, serves 11 domestic and 55 foreign airlines.

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