Celebrity or Technology Spotting at Airports?

And there are many other uses at airports across Europe. These include management of SCADA systems and line maintenance, ground staff location tracking, baggage tag scanning, parts inventory management and as electronic aircraft technical logs to name just a few more.

When you start to think about it, it’s no surprise that rugged devices are in demand in aviation. Firstly, they are built for the environment. As 24-hour operations, airports have to work in all weathers and mobile devices have to be able to deal with extreme temperatures, as well a knocks, drops, rain and dust. Airports cover vast areas, so reliable connectivity and highly accurate GPS location technology is also essential – even in areas where signals can traditionally be difficult to maintain. 

Special functionality is often required within many mobile devices to carry out different tasks around the airport and airfield, such as integrated barcode readers for scanning luggage labels and boarding passes, or signature capture for signing off e-tech logs. Having devices that can be modular equipped to meet specific tasks means workers do not need to carry around multiple devices to do their job.

Good data security and long battery life are a must, as is the ability to dock the mobile device quickly and securely in different vehicles. Lastly, the aviation industry adopts technology slowly because of the many regulatory approvals that must be secured before new systems are introduced, so when deploying mobile devices, they are looking to invest in equipment that will last for the long-term.