The PITAGORA project: near field communication to improve passenger experience in airports

This paper describes a solution based on Near Field Communication technology to improve Passenger Experience, i.e. the fruition of services and assets, in airports. This system has been developed within the PITAGORA project, a research program co-financed by the Regional Government of Tuscany, Italy, focusing on the development of an innovative integrated platform for airport management. The proposed solution is based on the use of NFC for different purposes, starting from a virtual Boarding Pass service where the user's smartphone can be used to replace the common paper Boarding Passes. Together with this application, a set of complementary services has been developed to facilitate the use of the airport premises by the passengers. These services include an NFC Localization function allowing the user to know his/her position inside the airport structure, and an NFC Information function, providing the user custom data concerning retails, services and transports.