Edinburgh Airport chooses Better Forecast

Edinburgh Airport to improve passenger forecasting with the cloud-based planning solution, Better Forecast

31th May 2018

Edinburgh Airport (EDI) has announced a new contract with Copenhagen Optimization (CopOpt) to introduce CopOpt’s Better Forecast platform, in order to improve the accuracy of the passenger forecast while reducing the time spent on forecasting.

CopOpt will deliver the Better Forecast solution through Better Airport®, its cloud-based planning platform. Better Airport® has already been successfully implemented at other international airports, including Toronto Pearson International Airport, Geneva Airport, Bologna Airport, and Dublin Airport.

EDI is the busiest airport in Scotland and one of the fastest growing airports in the UK with more than 10% growth per year in recent years. At the same time, EDI strives to among the most efficient airports and is constantly looking for solutions that can help them achieve this.

Since its founding in December 2014, CopOpt has become a leader in airport operations planning by combining in-depth operations research with hands-on airport operations experience in numerous airports around the world. Better Airport® – a cloud-based platform for all operational areas in an airport – enables airports to carry out all operational planning using one common platform.

EDI selected Better Forecast through a competitive process where three different forecast solutions where trialed in a head-to-head competition. Among other metrics, the forecast accuracy, the time to complete a forecast, and the transparency in how the forecast is created were considered. Better Forecast delivered the highest accuracy at a significantly quicker pace through an easy-to-understand user experience.

The passenger forecast is a key input to the security process and current users of Better Airport® have reported reduced waiting times, reduced stress levels for both staff and passengers, and increased staff efficiency after implementation of Better Forecast. This includes a 51% reduction in wait times at Geneva Airport while London Luton Airport have experienced a 25% reduction in wait times while maintaining a forecast accuracy of 96.7%.

Anders Dohn, Managing Partner at CopOpt, said:

“We enjoyed the head-to-head competition and were pleased to see how the EDI forecasting team were setting high standards for the forecasting process as well as for the accuracy of the forecast. The machine learning elements included in Better Forecast proved    successful    and significantly reduced the time required to make a forecast while securing a high accuracy.”

Zoë Todd, Head of Integrated Business Planning at Edinburgh Airport, said:

“This new forecasting solution will allow us to meet an increasing demand for more dynamic, timely and accurate security forecasting.  Working with CopOpt we have reduced the time taken to produce the security forecast, demonstrated an improvement in forecast accuracy and have found an intuitive product that more than fits the needs of our Business Planning Team.