February 2, 2023

Modern Airports and Digital Tools: Navigating the terminal with Berlin Brandenburg Airport

Point Consulting

Berlin Brandenburg Airport has two terminals and was opened in October 2020 as the new international airport for the German Capital Region

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Why digital maps and airport wayfinding?

Berlin Brandenburg Airport was looking for a digital mapping solution to help passengers orientate themselves in the airport and discover what shops, restaurants and services were available to them

The terminal maps needed to be available on both the website and the mobile app so passengers can view the maps before their journey but also leverage indoor positioning once at the airport

There was also a need to have a user-friendly Content Management System allowing the airport to manage the terminal map content directly. As new shops or locations became available or when the opening hours changed, there needed to be a simple way to make changes quickly and instantly in the airport map for the website and mobile app

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How the Point Maps Digital Platform helped?

The first step was to convert Berlin Brandenburg Airport’s floorplans from CAD to a Digital format (IMDF) and add the locations of boarding gates, check-in areas, shops, services and other key points of interest for passengers in the terminals

Then using the Point Maps Digital Platform we embedded the maps into Berlin Airport website (https://ber.berlin-airport.de/en/orientation/site-plans/interaktive-karte.html) and mobile app (https://app.berlin-airport.de)

The wayfinding logic was crafted to allow routing around the airport, helping passengers route to both indoor and outdoor locations, including car rentals and airport hotels. Additionally, Point’s Intelligent Routing was used to handle the airport’s complex passenger flows between landside and airside as well as Schengen and non- Schengen passenger movements

We also integrated Indoor Positioning (“blue dot”) throughout the airport to allow users to locate themselves, including automatic floor recognition, pinpointing the exact location of the user in the airport and this was expertly delivered by Situm leveraging their indoor positioning technology platform with Digitas Pixelpark supporting the mobile app integration

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Indoor mapping features

The Point Maps solution has several pre-built features to enhance the user experience, from delivering the maps in multiple languages to intelligent routing

Retailers and service operators in the airport are also benefitting from additional content such as descriptions, images and opening hours, allowing passengers to learn about what is available in the airport and see what is open at the time of their flight or along their route to the Gate

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Editing the airport map in real-time

The Point Map Content Management System manages all content edits directly, whether adding or removing locations, changing the map appearance or editing data relating to a Point of Interest

Once edited, the changes are deployed instantly across the website and mobile apps ensuring the users benefited from the most up-to-date maps whichever channel they use to access the terminal maps

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The Benefits

Passengers of Berlin Brandenburg Airport now benefit from comprehensive digital maps of both Terminals to help with their journey through the airport. Passengers can discover what the airport has to offer via the website and the mobile App. Additional they can plan their routes and get directions via the BER airport mobile app.

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