Mobile puts airplane mode

L'Hospitalet de LlobregatFor years, the Mobile World Congress (MWC) has tirelessly reiterated that it's about more than just mobile phones. This is evidenced by the fact that 60% of attendees come from other industries and that phones have been losing ground at the exhibitors visiting the Gran Vía Fairgrounds these days, in favor of the growing prominence of futuristic robots and even animated plush toys. To this end, the technology congress has decided to take things a step further this year, focusing on an industry where connectivity is key: aviation.

The GSMA, the organizer of MWC, has dedicated a space at the congress for the first time in its 20 years in the city to a sector outside the mobile industry, choosing to imagine what airports of the future might look like, highlighting the entire process, from the initial search for a flight to boarding. "Airports function like smart cities in themselves. They constantly compete for passengers, but they can't grow any larger, even though the number of users will continue to increase in the coming years. The question here is how to make them smarter if they can't grow any bigger," explains Barney Stinton, head of connected aviation at the GSMA.

When travelers are still on their sofas at home, Vueling's proposal, presented at Mobile World Congress, comes into play. From its innovation center in Viladecans, the Catalan airline has designed an AI-powered chat to help customers find their destination. Based on its route offerings, the tool adapts to the requests it receives, whether in writing or directly via voice message. "We're incorporating AI as a new sales channel and anticipating one of the methods that customers will ultimately use preferentially," says Vueling's IT director, Javi Álvarez. This isn't the first time they've used this technology, which also answers frequently asked questions on their website and optimizes flight schedules in bad weather. You simply provide the basic information, such as wanting to take a weekend family trip to a culturally rich European city, and the virtual assistant does the rest. Prague, Florence, and Berlin are some of the options it suggests, offering possible itineraries and quickly indicating the cheapest options based on the travel dates. Once the destination is chosen, all that's left is to select a seat, provide your details, and pay. The airline has been working on developing this AI for a year and plans to make it available to customers in 2026, ideally before summer, aware that more and more users are planning their trips with ChatGPT. With the destination chosen, it's time to pack your luggage. This is where the smart tags created by the Norwegian company BagID come into play, eliminating all the paperwork that gets stuck to suitcases when they're checked in. But it doesn't just reduce paper consumption; it also allows you to generate the tags at home and leave them attached, instead of just taking them to a designated counter. This avoids the endless queues at each airline and lets you track your luggage at all times once it's on the carousel. For now, they can only be used with Norwegian Airlines, at a cost of 200 euros per device, but Aena is already testing them at airports like Barcelona, ​​Alicante, Palma, and Gran Canaria, hoping more airlines will join.

Once at the airport, the French company Outsight ensures that nothing goes unnoticed. This technology allows you to locate any passenger or employee inside the airport using numerous sensors installed on the walls, as well as detect suspicious objects. "We monitor everything in real time and, furthermore, we can predict what will happen based on the information that has been recorded," summarizes one of its managers, Eduardo de la Espriella. They only need to alert authorities when they see queues forming at security checkpoints or adjust staffing levels according to the expected passenger flow. "In an airport, efficiency is everything," De la Espriella emphasizes. They have already been contracted in Paris, Rome, and Dallas. At the latter US airport, they also have another monitoring tool: an Anybotics robot dog that goes to potential security hotspots, such as electrical installations or boiler rooms—a solution widely used in industry that is beginning to enter other sectors like aviation.

At this point, with all the checks facts —obviously, also the check in—, all that's left is to sit on the plane. This is where the French manufacturer Airbus is exploring how to improve the passenger experience. As they explained at MWC, they are testing ways to personalize the videos passengers see in their seats according to their preferences, aiming to "make them feel at home," as stated by Eric Peyrucain, Head of Connected Aviation at Airbus. The company also wants to address one of the airlines' main concerns: food waste, with 40% of food products ending up in the trash. To tackle this, they have created a tray reader that allows them to see what is actually being consumed, with the goal of adjusting the load on future flights. This also helps save fuel, one of the biggest headaches for airlines.

"The mobile industry is everywhere, and we will continue to expand into other sectors," Stinton said regarding GSMA's commitment to repeating this pilot program at future editions of MWC. The trade fair is thus moving towards other models such as Smart City, a successful model conceived by Fira de Barcelona that studies how technology impacts the different industries that coexist in smart cities through various sectors, such as mobility and housing.