26 M C K I N S EY Q UA RT E R LY - - - - - - Outlook The Next Normal ramp onto the gate. It is the service vehicles that help clean an aircraft. It is the catering truck that brings in drinks and food for passengers to enjoy on the airplane. Much of that will be digitized—and automated in some instances—and delivered in a way that allows for higher reliabil ity and better on-time performance. Kelly Ungerman I think there’s a real potential for AI to do better demand planning, so you know exactly where to staff workers, and they show up at the right place at the right time. Another really interesting technology in the con text of the airport of the future is autonomous vehicles—to be able to shuttle passengers from one part of the airport to another, or from a large central terminal out to the airplane sitting on the runway. It gives you flexibility to be a lot more modular. I think robotics are interesting, as well. In everything from gate operations to baggage handling to food and beverage delivery, there is oppor tunity to be much more efficient. Steve Saxon We have self-driv ing taxis on the streets of San Francisco, but we still have somebody driving a jet bridge to attach to a plane. Lots of these things—like baggage loading, jet bridges, and passenger buses— will become autonomous. I don’t think we’ll have long piers with lots of fingers and gates lead ing out to aircraft. Why do we want to build big buildings, and why do we want to make passengers walk? Instead, I think we’ll have a fantastic, entertaining central area within the airport and then autonomous shut tles taking people out to board their aircraft just in time for their flight. An online version of this feature (including video interviews) is available on McKinsey.com ‘From gate operations to baggage handling, there is opportunity for airports to be much more efficient.’ C O U R T E S Y O F A M S T E R D A M A I R P O R T S C H I P H O L ( 2 ) From left to right: At Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, bag drops and passport checkpoints are becoming more seamless and automated. AI and biometrics can help smooth passenger flows and eliminate bottlenecks.