Chairman's MessageChairman Masahiko Kurono
(President & CEO, Narita International Airport Corporation)
Globalization of the social economy will further increase during the 21st century. The mission of international air transportation will become more important and the airport, supporting international air transportation bears a big role.
Furthermore, it is predicted that air transportation demand in the world will double over the next 15 years, and it is said that the most expected market is Northeast Asia.
Moreover, the Japanese government decided on the "Action Plan to Realize Japan
as a Country Built on Tourism"
(Visit Japan Campaign) in
July 2003, for the purpose of promoting increase to international exchange and
incoming tourists. This will increase the number of incoming tourists from the
present 5 million to 10 million by 2010 with a goal to grow tourism as a leading
industry in Japan.
In the mean time, since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the U.S., the environment surrounding the aviation industry has become very severe and has caused impact to various areas against the entire aviation industry. Security at airports has been reinforced in all aspects, significantly deteriorated ontime performance, caused mass congestion at the airport and caused drastic increase on management and operational costs.
Owing to these issues, the air transport industry in recent years has seen a need to improve both, convenience to passengers and security measures and at the same time, improve ontime performance in a most economical manner.
In connection with this trend, IATA (International Air Transport Association) has been promoting the SPT (Simplifying Passenger Travel) project to facilitate the process of international travel for the next-generation air transportation. 2005 is set as a target for implementation with various trials being conducted by respective countries.
Narita Airport since fiscal year 2002 has also been conducting several trials in relation to
"e-Airport", a MLIT program promoting IT at the airport. Research is being performed on technical, operational and system aspects.
ASTREC in it's research, has incorporated the concept of "SPT" in the air transportation system process, improving convenience to the passengers, allowing a more effective use of airport facilities, a more efficient process management and assuring a high level of security.
ASTREC will do its best to contribute, by developing solutions to overcome world wide airport problems from a global perspective, promote a high level research to be a leader in next-generation airport systems with the support of MLIT which has jurisdiction of the association, respective government agencies and our advisory staff who possess expertise knowledge.
I ask you for your understanding, further support and cooperation.
• Visit Japan Campaign
(for an overview, see http://www.visitjapan.jp/)
• SPT (Simplifying Passenger Travel)
http://www.simplifying-travel.org/
• e-Airport Concept
(for an overview, see http://www.e-airport.jp/en/index.html)
(for an overview, see http://www.visitjapan.jp/)
This is a national campaign being promoted by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport to increase the number of foreign visitors to Japan.
Its objectives are to substantially enhance Japan's efforts to draw foreign visitors in terms of both quantity and quality which in the past have been insufficient and lackluster in comparison with those of other countries - and to forcefully promote visits to Japan by travelers from overseas. It seeks to achieve those goals by revising the traditional programs for promoting visits to Japan from abroad and by implement a strategic and effective visit-promotion campaign, called the Visit Japan Campaign.
• SPT (Simplifying Passenger Travel)
http://www.simplifying-travel.org/
SPT has the aim of simplifying the processing involved with travel by leveraging information technology. For example, by enabling the organizations concerned with entry and exit from a country to immediately share the information required in application for travel merely by requiring the passenger to perform just one set of procedures, the traveler will be able to more quickly and efficiently complete an entire series of travel procedures. The SPT concept is being promoted by the SPT Project, which is an organization for international cooperation. It is composed of International Air Transport Association (IATA) , which serves as secretariat, governmental organizations of many nations, airport administrators, air transport businesses, IT vendors, and others.
• e-Airport Concept
(for an overview, see http://www.e-airport.jp/en/index.html)
The e-Airport Concept is one of the specific programs of the e-Japan Strategy with the goal of speedy achievement of an ?ginformation technology nation." The e-Airport Concept is a joint public and private sector project aiming at building the Tokyo Narita Airport into one of the world's leading airports in information technology. The e-Airport Concept consists of the following five projects.
- e-information : Offering comprehensive information on public transportation for airport access, integrated with flight information.
- e-check in : Achieving simplification and speed-up of the travel process through automation of various airline passenger procedures, as well as enhanced security through personal authorization using biometrics technology.
- Airport Net : Building broadband networks in airports.
- e-Navigation : Providing information on airport facilities in foreign languages.
- e-tag : An e-tag (with embedded RFID chip) is attached to checked baggage for baggage tracking and the like. By coupling baggage information with delivery service, a traveler can reach his or her destination airport without having to carry any luggage.
