Schiphol Wilbur has been developed to get a handle on the whole operational process at Schiphol and to ensure efficient, transparent and safe processes. Wilbur is a real-time dashboard for the airport’s most important control centres.
Wilbur is named after the pioneer of civil aviation: Wilbur Wright. The application has been developed in-house by Schiphol, and the platform has a visionary perspective, just as Wright did. The data that Wilbur collects and provides insight into enables Schiphol to look up to 4 hours ahead at an increasing number of airport processes. Sensors all over the airport collect data; the temperature and amount of people at a particular location can be identified, for instance. Schiphol Airport Control receives real-time information about how busy it is in the terminal and about what can be expected. This means that we can more swiftly respond to changes, prevent long queues and deploy staff where they are most needed.
Thanks to Wilbur, all cooperating agents at Schiphol work according to a single ‘data truth’ and are able to make data-driven decisions. Wilbur proactively advises the Operational Capacity managers in the Security Control Center on plans for the filters and security lanes. Using prognoses, real-time advice is given about the number of teams that should be deployed and about lanes that should be opened. This advice is based on past data and on the present situation.
Until recently, these plans were based on camera footage, experience and intuition. Thanks to Wilbur, decisions regarding planning and scheduling are now more data-driven. Capacity can be used more effectively, and this leads to fewer queues for travellers as well as cost savings.
Overview of passenger flows
Real-time data, e.g. about the temperature and amount of people at a location
Looking up to 4 hours ahead and making adjustments to processes
Advice about effective capacity use