One Way Ticket To A Smart Destination: Evolution Of Smart Airports - Ecem KISACIK

IoT has a very broad application areas. Through the last decade, IoT had advanced in many sectors. Aviation is one these sectors that are developing by these enhancements. In this paper, I investigate the smart systems and services at the airports. Smart airports use various integrated systems and services at different levels of operation such as baggage claim, gates, check-in kiosks, etc. Moreover, IoT empowered smart airports have numerous advantages for mainly two aspects: land side and air side. I analyze the advantages of both sides. Airports have been changing drastically throughout the years. The commencement of the civil aviation was only about safety and standard services. Then, it continued with a more advanced approach of better customer experience. Nowadays, airports are becoming to “smart airports” which corresponds to a collaboration of systems, appliances, and services. The concept of IoT and interconnecting devices at an airport, changed the conventional airports forever. It is crucial for the airports to be modernized with IoT systems gradually since they are vulnerable to many threats. I also intricate the potential cybersecurity threats towards the aforementioned IoT empowered systems at smart airports. Furthermore, I provide examples and use cases of smart applications and potential threats, from airports all around the world.