In 2018, Frankfurt recorded a total of 69.5 million passengers. Frankfurt Airport has a particular interest in ensuring passengers have a pleasant travel experience and competitive passenger operations due to its above-average share of transit traffic.

Wayfinding within Terminals 1 and 2 poses challenges for international and German guests and, in addition to time loss, is a significant stress factor. This problem should be solved. In a second stage, travelers from Asia should be addressed directly at the terminal with welcome and advertising messages.

FRAPORT was already using an app as a central mobile communication channel around the airport visit. Favendo therefore planned and installed a BLE beacon infrastructure at the airport and provided the corresponding software as an SDK so that the app, which was developed by a third party, could be extended to include indoor positioning and indoor navigation features.

In addition, Favendo provided a proximity function and integration with WeChat, a very popular messenger in Asia, which is now used to alert Chinese travelers in particular to the airport’s shopping offerings.

A particular challenge was the installation of the beacons, which had to comply with SITA standards and be “invisible” at the same time. In addition, the installed BLE transmitters had to be easily removable without leaving any residue.

The requirements set by FRAPORT were met 100 percent for both installation and turn-by-turn navigation.

FRAPORT increased the usage time of the mobile app by offering indoor navigation and proximity functions. Travel times have been significantly reduced. A new marketing channel to Asian passengers was established.