SITA's technology improve passenger experience at America's friendliest airport

Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, known as America’s Friendliest Airport, is using sophisticated technology from global IT provider SITA to offer its 44 million passengers real-time information for their journey through the airport.

Passengers can now view security wait times before they travel as well as when they arrive at the airport. Today, real-time checkpoint wait times are available on the airport’s website; on flight information displays in the terminals and PHX Sky Train stations; and on Sky Harbor’s visual paging screens in the terminals.

Committed to providing a great passenger experience, Phoenix Sky Harbor rolled out SITA QueueAnalyzer, the intelligent queue management technology from SITA and its partner inside, following a successful two-month pilot at the airport. It is now in use at five security checkpoints in Terminals 2 and 4, providing accurate real-time information. More than 80% of passengers use Terminal 4, which is home to American Airlines and Southwest Airlines, the airport's dominant carriers.

In addition to providing passengers with the information they need, SITA QueueAnalyzer provides airport management with dashboards to assess current wait times and view live video of lines. It also provides dashboards for quick analysis of real-time information against historical data, allowing for better allocation of resources to avoid bottlenecks. Airports across the USA are focusing on improving queue management and SITA’s technology will be in operation at a number of high-volume airports before the end of the year.

Randy Pizzi, SITA President, Americas, said: “Passengers want the right information at the right time and SITA QueueAnalyzer ensures that Sky Harbor provides accurate information at every touchpoint. Not only does it monitor wait times but it can predict queue times at key checkpoints so that lines can be managed more efficiently. This is a great example of smart technology being used to deliver a better passenger experience.”

SITA QueueAnalyzer is also being installed as part of Sky Harbor’s Terminal 3 modernization and will come online later this year, when the first phase of the terminal project is completed.