Brussels Airport displays real time wait times

Brussels Airport is using sensor technology to improve the passenger experience and optimise operations.

Belgium’s leading airport has introduced BlipTrack from Blip Systems to measure wait times and flow within the airport.

The airport displays the wait times on screens throughout the airport and on their mobile app.

The BlipTrack sensors detects Wi-Fi devices, such as mobile phones and tablets. By re-identifying devices from multiple sensors, the wait times and movement patterns become available.

Christian Bugislaus Carstens, Markerting Manager at BLIP Systems:

“Today, many airports display wait times. Typically, this is done by measuring the wait time of people leaving the queue. However, these wait times may not be accurate for those entering the queue, especially if the flow of people suddenly changes.

“BlipTrack works by measuring the number of people in line and the average throughput of the area. With these two measurements, accurate wait time, for those entering the line, can be displayed. For example, if there are 100 passengers in line and the processing rate of the area is 15 people per minute, the predicted wait time is 6,5 minutes.”

Operationally, Brussels Airport uses the data to monitor security line congestion, which allows management to respond promptly and effectively to irregular operations and disruptions, to ultimately reduce processing times.

Thomas Sterken, Project Manager of Operations at Brussels Airport:

“BlipTrack enables Brussels Airport to monitor the quality of the terminal processes and to improve the resource planning. The collected wait time data and throughput is also used to perform consistent reporting to internal and external stakeholders.”

In 2015 Brussels Airport welcomed 23.5 million passengers, an all-time record.

The number of airports displaying real-time wait times, based on data collected by the BlipTrack is growing and includes: