De-risking the future — A case study: DFW Airport driving innovation and reducing risk on the road to autonomy

Jodie Brinkerhoff
Additional contact information
Jodie Brinkerhoff: VP Innovation, Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, USA

Journal of Airport Management, 2022, vol. 16, issue 4, 314-326

Abstract: The coming wave of autonomous vehicles (AVs) presents a conundrum. Under the weight of millions of annual passengers, non-aeronautical revenue streams that feature parking and rental cars as top-line items and the business operation needs of today, airports risk erosion of revenue streams and upended operations as AVs come forward. When you consider the pervasive opportunity autonomous technology brings to passenger transport, cargo and ground support equipment, aircraft taxi bots, lawn mowers and delivery robots, the risks are widespread. How might this emerging technology be planned for in an environment that requires years-long planning for infrastructure? How might a future be envisioned where cars park themselves — or cease to require parking because they dutifully return home empty to their garage after a customer drop-off? The questions continue and the answers are unclear. What is clear is that the opportunity to take advantage of these technologies is immense. The time to initiate planning is now, even though solutions are still shrouded in ambiguity. Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport's (DFW) mission, ‘Travel. Transformed’ is not an endpoint, but rather a constantly evolving vision of what is possible. Innovation is a highly visible component of DFW's strategic plan, and a foundational element of its approach to meeting key results. This paper highlights DFW's efforts around autonomous technologies and their multi-pronged approach to innovation — an approach that features a discipled process, cross-functional programme management and a steadfast commitment to people.

Keywords: innovation; technology; culture; strategy; autonomous; customer experience; future; operations; collaboration; leadership (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: M1 M10 R4 R40 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://hstalks.com/article/7287/download/ (application/pdf)
https://hstalks.com/article/7287/ (text/html)
Requires a paid subscription for full access.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aza:jam000:y:2022:v:16:i:4:p:314-326

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Journal of Airport Management from Henry Stewart Publications
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Henry Stewart Talks ().