Analysis of Heathrow Airport CIO's IT Plan and Strategy

This report provides an in-depth analysis of Heathrow Airport's IT strategy, focusing on the CIO's plan to enhance passenger experience, improve operational flexibility, and build a new IT model. It examines the current initiatives, including the use of technology to streamline flight schedules, introduce biometrics, and reduce environmental impact through noise reduction and improved aircraft flow. The report critically appraises the CIO's approach, highlighting both the strengths and potential weaknesses of the proposed plans, such as the complexity of the new IT model, the need for regulatory approvals, and potential security concerns. Furthermore, the report suggests recommendations for future strategies, including improvements to passenger services, such as better Wi-Fi, more affordable food options, and enhanced support for disabled passengers. The report concludes with a summary of the key findings and recommendations, emphasizing the importance of a well-rounded approach to IT implementation for the long-term success of Heathrow Airport. The report also includes references to academic articles and industry reports.

Running head: INFORMATION SYSTEM
Information System
Name of the Student
Name of the University
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Executive Summary
Heathrow is the main international airport based in London, United Kingdom. The airport has
several areas that need to be addressed and needs to be modified and rejuvenate in terms of
passengers' satisfaction and diminishing the environmental impact. Heathrow Airport CIO
has taken a significant approach to redesigning the airport with all technical implementations.
The passengers can be largely benefitted from the aforesaid services, they can get the flight
arrival departure schedule all the time if any critical problem arises the operation staff will
solve issues for them in zero downtime. The report also focuses on reducing the
environmental impact by reducing the noise footprints to assure that the aeroplane utilises
pre-planned air power. The report also grandstands the issues that CIO missed and further
recommendations have been suggested.

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Table of Contents
1. Introduction............................................................................................................................2
2. Details of the theme...............................................................................................................2
2.a. Explanation of the theme, clarify and define any terms..................................................2
2.b. Expand with reference to stories and tasks.....................................................................2
2.c. Set in the context of recent IT history of company.........................................................3
2.d. Critically appraisal of the CIO’s view, strategy and approach to the stated theme.......4
3. The CIO’s plan issues that are not mentioned.......................................................................4
4. Suggestions for future strategy and direction that you think the CIO should pursue............5
5. Conclusion..............................................................................................................................6
6. References..............................................................................................................................6

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1. Introduction
Heathrow is the main international airport based in London, United Kingdom. The
airport has several areas that need to be addressed and needs to be modified and rejuvenate in
terms of passengers’ satisfaction and diminishing the environmental impact (Hansell et al.,
2013).
The report will highlight all the solutions that can help the airport to find a new glory.
A new IT model has been proposed for technically advancing the airport. All these have been
discussed in details from the Heathrow CIO's perspective.
2. Details of the theme
2.a. Explanation of the theme, clarify and define any terms
This report will highlight the Heathrow Airport CIO, Stuart Birrell’s interview and his
insight on working on the future plans of the airport (Davies, Dodgson and Gann 2016). This
report will also showcase the environmental impact and design of the new IT operational
model. The three models will be thoroughly discussed and defined in the following sections
in details.
2.b. Expand with reference to stories and tasks
Heathrow's CIO's plan is to use the latest technology to embellish the experience of
the passenger and not limited to only reducing environmental impact and construction of a
new IT design model to facilitate the passenger.
The objective of providing passengers’ facilities is via labouring on airlines
accumulating data and mapping info, automation, borders and ticketing. Therefore, it is the
plan for the IT team to deliver the best passenger experience service. Their plan is to build a

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framework that will work to provide the maximum comforts to the passengers of the airport.
All the passengers can now stay informed all the time about all the details of the airport flight
arrival and departures (Severi et al. 2016). Heathrow airport has planned to schedule both the
arrival and departure time of almost 90 flights and that schedule will broadcast on the screens
of the website as well as on the mobile screen. Heathrow has planned to offer more with the
aid of software that works along the supply chain, so they have joined with the 86 and IATA
airlines for better outcomes. They have also planned to introduce the biometrics trials to
enhance the safety and security (Irvine et al. 2016).
Again for reducing the environmental impact, they have planned to seek help from the
universities to improve the aircraft flow, they have also advanced traffic planning in mind
along with the passenger and airport planning to implement and configure.
They have a specific goal, they have a plan to allow the passengers with the bags
shipped with them and they believe that they may be the head of IT for the baggage (Pearson,
Campbell and Maheswaran 2016). Therefore, all the business activities they are undertaking
will be successful and their planned model is hoped to help them in the long run.
2.c. Set in the context of recent IT history of company
Heathrow has decided to shed the traditional partnering role and they want to move to
distinct ownership by business areas (Burghouwt et al. 2014). Therefore, they want to focus
on each and every aspect of the airport model and want to be best and want to gain the
ownership in all those particular aspects. They have partnered with certain IT organisations
and Capgemini is one of them, they have also partnered with other organisations to bring
positive change to the airport, the CIO particularly highlighted that there are five airports
around the UK and Heathrow is the only one carrying out independent business operations
because of their unique IT model, they are evolving technically and it is hoped that they will

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come up with more advanced features in terms of technology (Redondi and Gudmundsson
2016).
2.d. Critically appraisal of the CIO’s view, strategy and approach to the stated
theme
CIO of Heathrow Airport has significant role and is currently focussing on three demands
enhancing passenger experience, increasing the operational flexibility, and building a new IT
model, according to CIO, he is not focusing on short-term goals, instead he wants to focus on
certain long term plans in coming years (Hayden 2014). CIO stated that the passenger's
demands are increasing and they want to change the scenario of the airport according to their
demands keeping in mind both the technology and the passengers’ satisfaction. CIO is
planning to handle the critical systems within the organisation and wants to solve it in quick
times (Hansell et al. 2014). CIO stated the recent baggage problem in the airport due to
internal infrastructure failure. In this scenario he wants the operational staff to take the
responsibility in case of any failure and should enact to solve the issues within. CIO wants to
make strategic models which solve any problems incurred in the airport in zero downtime
that is really appreciable. Again for the passengers' convenience, he planned to broadcast real
time schedule of the flights to the mobile phone of the users' too. The passengers will be
provided with the automatized air ticket booking according to the plan. He is planning to
serve the biometrics facility as well (Osborne 2015). According to CIO, Heathrow is
currently joined with 86 airlines and IATA to enhance the mobile access along the supply
chain for better outcomes. The CIO is to reduce the noise footprint to assure that the
aeroplanes are the utilising the pre-planned air power and this air power is environmentally
friendly. Lastly, CIO’s plan is to improve the IT model to enhance their business activities to
the best within the airport (Ward 2016). The approaches are looking promising and Heathrow
airport will be definitely benefitted from this. However, the plan has not been implemented

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till now fully so nothing can be judged before, too much plan before the implementation is
the negative aspect.
3. The CIO’s plan issues that are not mentioned
The CIO's planning is great however he forgot to mention the issues that can be
generated, the It model they have adopted is quite complex and there are construction risks
associated with it. The Airport's Commission and the Government will have to approve each
and every plan. This requires a significant time and hence the plan will delay for sure. They
have to bear extra charge or cost and naturally, the passengers' fare will rise high, they may
hesitate to pay more (Canevelli, Blasimme and Cesari 2017). The new model will have to
implement within the busy schedule that can affect both the flights and the passengers and
even the construction works can suffer and CIO has no management plan for that. Not all the
passengers are used to advance technology; they can face many difficulties due to this new
technology. They have stated that they will inform the passengers all about the latest flight
schedule but they have not said the procedure (Powell et al. 2016). They will have to provide
details of the flight schedule along with the updates if the schedule changes in between, these
updates may create confusions among the passengers. There is a security issue as well; the
on-time schedule updates can be fatal as it will let the terrorists know all about the flight
details quite easily (Gudmundsson, Paleari and Redondi 2014). These are the concerns which
CIO should have been addressed before proceeding on the venture. Though they have the
baggage issues they have not solved the issues fully yet.

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4. Suggestions for future strategy and direction that you think the CIO
should pursue
i. Heathrow airport seems to have no plan for the disabled passengers right now. The general
staff members should be aware of the fact and they should be trained to facilitate the disabled
patients.
ii. The wireless network connection that is the Wi-Fi connection in the airport is not good and
needs a lot of improvement.
iii. The shops within the airport area sell foods which are expensive; to facilitate the
passengers they should arrange for them the cost-effective quality foods.
iv. Heathrow should arrange for a proper restroom over there.
v. The passengers stand in long winding queues, they must adopt the data mining techniques,
and the smart RFID technology to benefit the passengers so that they do not have to stand in a
long queue.
vi. Adopting the cloud technology and the data mining technique they can keep track of every
passenger, thus will ensure security of the passengers as well as the airport.
vii. They should send text messages to all the passengers about the flight schedule in details,
they should also provide the app facilities as well so that the passengers can get the details via
apps.
5. Conclusion
It can be concluded from the above discourse that the Heathrow Airport CIO has
taken significant approach to redesign the airport with all technical implementations. The
passengers can be largely benefitted from the aforesaid services, they can get the flight arrival

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departure schedule all the time, if any critical problem arises the operation staff will solve
issues for them in zero downtime. The report also focuses on reducing the environmental
impact by reducing the noise footprints to assure that the aeroplane utilises pre-planned air
power. The report also grandstands the issues that CIO missed and further recommendations
have been suggested.
6. References
Burghouwt, G., Krul, J., Veldhuis, J., de Wit, J. and Jamotta, J., 2014. Expanding airport
capacity: competition and connectivity: the case of Gatwick and Heathrow. Country-Specific
Policy Analysis.
Canevelli, M., Blasimme, A. and Cesari, M., 2017. Societal and global implications of the"
dementia epidemic": the example of the London Heathrow airport. European journal of
epidemiology, 32(4), pp.347-348.
Davies, A., Dodgson, M. and Gann, D., 2016. Dynamic capabilities in complex projects: the
case of London Heathrow Terminal 5. Project management journal, 47(2), pp.26-46.
Gudmundsson, S., Paleari, S. and Redondi, R., 2014. Spillover effects of the development
constraints in London Heathrow Airport. Journal of Transport Geography, 35, pp.64-74.
Hansell, A.L., Blangiardo, M., Fortunato, L., Floud, S., de Hoogh, K., Fecht, D., Ghosh, R.E.,
Laszlo, H.E., Pearson, C., Beale, L. and Beevers, S., 2013. Aircraft noise and cardiovascular
disease near Heathrow airport in London: small area study. Bmj, 347, p.f5432.
Hansell, A.L., Blangiardo, M., Fortunato, L., Floud, S., de Hoogh, K., Fecht, D., Ghosh, R.E.,
Laszlo, H.E., Pearson, C., Beale, L. and Beevers, S., 2014, October. Daytime and night-time

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aircraft noise and cardiovascular disease near Heathrow airport in London. In INTER-NOISE
and NOISE-CON Congress and Conference Proceedings (Vol. 249, No. 1, pp. 5653-5662).
Institute of Noise Control Engineering.
Hayden, A., 2014. Stopping Heathrow Airport expansion (for now): Lessons from a victory
for the politics of sufficiency. Journal of Environmental Policy & Planning, 16(4), pp.539-
558.
Irvine, D., Budd, L., Ison, S. and Kitching, G., 2016. The environmental effects of peak hour
air traffic congestion: The case of London Heathrow Airport. Research in Transportation
Economics, 55, pp.67-73.
Osborne, T., 2015. Growing pains: Heathrow expansion may be the unanimous choice of the
Airports Commission, but the hurdles toward growth are immense. Aviation Week & Space
Technology.
Pearson, T., Campbell, M.J. and Maheswaran, R., 2016. Acute effects of aircraft noise on
cardiovascular admissions–an interrupted time-series analysis of a six-day closure of London
Heathrow Airport caused by volcanic ash. Spatial and spatio-temporal epidemiology, 18,
pp.38-43.
Powell, A.B., Barclay, A., Mepham, L. and Stevens, C.J., 2016. Imperial College Sports
Grounds and RMC Land, Harlington: The development of prehistoric and later communities
in the Colne Valley and on the Heathrow Terraces (Vol. 33). Wessex Archaeology.
Redondi, R. and Gudmundsson, S.V., 2016. Congestion spill effects of Heathrow and
Frankfurt airports on connection traffic in European and Gulf hub airports. Transportation
Research Part A: Policy and Practice, 92, pp.287-297.

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Severi, E., Maguire, H., Ihekweazu, C., Bickler, G. and Abubakar, I., 2016. Outcomes
analysis of new entrant screening for active tuberculosis in Heathrow and Gatwick airports,
United Kingdom 2009/2010. BMC infectious diseases, 16(1), p.178.
Ward, D., 2016. Picnics gain flight: concessionaires at Heathrow take grab-and-go to new
level. Airport revenue news.