Airport operators must ensure that passengers are able to navigate often-complex terminal layouts to reach their departure gates on time. Some of the technology on offer also encourages them to spend more money during their journey through the airport. Finnish company Confidex, for example, developed an application known as MyVia that offers wayfinding information for passengers and proximity marketing for retail and catering outlets at airports. MyVia : is based on proprietary beacons, which are : situated at 10 m intervals to identify passengers by reading mobile phone Bluetooth signatures. According to Paul Broekhuizen, vice-president of sales and marketing at Confidex, 99.9% of modern smartphones are Bluetooth enabled. Broekhuizen mentioned that one major Asian airport is running MyVia on an iOS system, providing wayfinding maps, with 4,500 beacons installed. This live deployment has been in place since 2017. Two European airports are trialling the system: one for wayfinding services and the other on an e-commerce platform/proximity marketing basis. "Uptake has been better than we expected," he added.
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