How the Melbourne Airport Improved Passenger Experiences with a Cisco Network

Melbourne Airport is enhancing passenger travel through a strategic partnership with Cisco. The partnership includes a comprehensive five-year architecture plan as part of a single enterprise-wide licensing and support agreement. The plan focuses on maintaining, updating, and integrating new technologies.

The airport must be highly reliable and resilient because of its busy operations, with 45 planes landing and taking off every hour, over 30 million annual travelers, and a workforce of 20,000 employees. Cisco is an all-in-one vendor that provides the necessary infrastructure and security, according to Melbourne Airport’s chief information officer, Anthony Tomai, who shared the partnership details during a recent customer spotlight webinar delivered to the analyst community.

The airport is supported by a massive third-party supply chain, which creates unique challenges, given its status as a heavily regulated critical asset across the state, country, and globe. Melbourne Airport's infrastructure is extensive and crucial for its operations. It includes systems for baggage handling, security screening, and QR code-enabled payments—all underpinned by Cisco technology.

Taking a collaborative approach

In 2023, Melbourne Airport released a technology strategy emphasizing reliability, uptime, and critical infrastructure protection. Partnerships are crucial in this strategy, as the airport relies on suppliers and partners for research, development, and innovation. According to Tomai, this collaborative approach ensures continuous improvement in passenger services, internal operations, and third-party relations.

“The passenger is a huge function of what we think about daily. It’s central to the broader corporate strategy, and we put a lot of time and energy into making that passenger experience seamless. We’re working alongside Cisco to continue innovating,” said Tomai.

One notable technology is Cisco Spaces, which has improved the passenger experience. Primarily providing an interactive landing point for all passenger guest Wi-Fi, this technology provides the gateway to mapping and navigation features accessible via smartphones so passengers will be able to easily move around the airport. The integration with customer relationship management (CRM) systems will allow for personalization of the journey. Passengers will get information on flights and amenities, as well as directions. Meanwhile, the airport gathers valuable data about passenger needs and behaviors, improving overall service.

To enhance the travel experience further, the airport utilizes passenger data from Wi-Fi. When passengers connect to free Wi-Fi, they are asked to provide an email address, which is used for proactive marketing. This includes promoting flight deals, nearby retailers, and parking options.

Additionally, the airport uses Cisco technology to analyze passenger movement. It measures the time it takes for passengers to walk from one point to another within the airport. The collected data helps address friction points, such as wait times at security screening.

“We’re using some of that innovation to look at things like BlueDot and the enablement of digital maps on our website, so passengers with smartphones can make their way through our airport using the connected environment,” said Tomai.

By leveraging the Internet of Things (IoT) data and advanced data analysis, Cisco improves passenger flow and reduces congestion at the airport. Cisco connects various airport systems and vehicles, providing real-time information. This is necessary for managing ground procedures, electric vehicle charging, autonomous operations, and smart facilities.

“As a result of broadening what you connect, there’s an increased risk of data breaches and cybersecurity vulnerabilities that expose many of these assets and infrastructure. So a lot of our portfolio and all of our engagement with the Melbourne Airport team is around connectivity and security,” said Harsha Hewapathirane, director of enterprise, commercial, and service provider sales at Cisco Australia.

Cisco ensures end-to-end security at Melbourne Airport. It provides visibility across the airport’s IT systems by identifying threats and analyzing data from multiple sources. Cisco’s zero-trust approach means no one inside or outside the network is trusted by default. Zero-trust security verifies every user and device attempting to access the system. For cloud services, Cisco uses intelligent patching to secure workloads. By doing this, the airport can minimize vulnerabilities and protect against potential cyber threats.

Improvements now, with an eye to the future

Lastly, sustainability is a key priority for Melbourne Airport, which has a complex and expansive environment with multi-faceted operations. The airport is committed to achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2025. By boosting security, efficiency, and the passenger experience, Cisco has helped Melbourne Airport address current challenges and prepare for the future.

While Cisco has a broad set of customers, Melbourne Airport is an excellent case study as it’s a microcosm of society. Airports have a point of sale, security systems, a large and transient population, healthcare services, and more. It also underscores how important the network is for business operations in all companies. Almost everything a school, hospital, retailer, sports team, hotel, or other company does is tied to the network. IT leaders must think of the network and security holistically to deliver high-quality experiences to their audience.

Zeus Kerravala is the founder and principal analyst with ZK Research.

Read his other Network Computing articles here.