May/June 2023 - 18

TECHNOLOGY TALK
AUTHOR Rebecca Kanable
DFW's multilingual wayfinding signs
display English and up to three other
languages at one time.
PHOTOS BY SYNECT
eral areas of opportunity to enhance
our international customers' experience, "
Buchanan said.
Passengers see multilingual messages
as they head to CBP, leave CBP
and head to connecting flights or the
airport terminal exit, choose security
checkpoints and look for their gates.
DFW displays English and up to
DFW Uses Passenger360
for Multilingual Wayfinding
Content management system displays English
and other languages based on flight schedule.
MULTILINGUAL WAYFINDING at Dallas Fort Worth
International Airport (DFW) helps passengers with little
or no English proficiency navigate the airport process.
Synect and the DFW customer experience team collaborated
to deliver smart, translated content at key
decision points along the DFW passenger journey.
Through improved wayfinding and
messaging, DFW wanted to make the
airport more accessible and friendlier.
As the passenger experience is
enhanced, airport operations are
enhanced through increased throughput,
enhanced flow and the ability to
help international travelers find their
way to and through Customs and
Border Protection (CBP), and to their
gate or the airport terminal exit.
" The multilingual project implemented
is only one part of our digital
transformation
that we have
been and will continue to implement
in the coming years, " said Ken
Buchanan, DFW Executive Vice
President - Revenue Management
and Customer Experience.
Synect's Passenger360 digital sig18
\ AIRPORT BUSINESS / MAY/JUNE 2023
nage platform went live in 2021 as
part of DFW's Terminal D extension.
" It was initially deployed at DFW's
Terminal D South to create a loungelike
atmosphere and help passengers
relax at the boarding area while easily
seeing gate status from anywhere
within the space, " said Yahav Ran,
Synect CEO.
The system grew to support the
multilingual wayfinding initiative,
which went live months later in September
2021.
Valuing customer feedback, DFW
conducted an English proficiency
study with passengers as international
flights arrived at the airport. " We
combined this study with a complete
signage review of our international
connecting journey and identified sevthree
other languages at one time.
Passenger360 supports Arabic, Dutch,
Chinese Simplified, French, German,
Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese
and Spanish and others as needed.
If flights were coming in to DFW
from New York, Brazil, France and
Germany, the CMS would display
English, Portuguese, French and
German. The language displayed is
automated by the smart system.
" It is reactive to true airport activity.
Because the solution is integrated
with the AODB (airport operations
database) and receives the flight schedule
and the flight country of origin, it
is showing translations based on the
languages most likely to be needed at
any given time, " Ran said.
In other words, no one needs to
schedule the content to play in English
and German at 10 a.m.
" Passenger360 automatically reads
the flight schedule and cross-references
that with the incoming flights'
country of origin and 'knows' when
it needs to show content in German, "
Ran said. " If a flight from Germany
gets delayed, the system will automatically
adjust to the new arrival time,
again without any manual intervention
from airport operators. "
If a flight is coming in from New
York, and no other flights take a
higher priority for language, the
system would display English and
Spanish. There is always a second
language, Ran said, adding it's often
Spanish, and there would be times
when a third language is not shown.
May/June 2023

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of May/June 2023
