Better Forecast - where the future is more certain

Is your airport’s forecasting complex, time-consuming and dependent on a few specialized employees? Then now is the time to introduce machine learning technologies into your forecasting, eliminate spreadsheets and regain time for more valuable tasks.

Better Forecast is our cloud-based forecasting solution that creates automated forecasts available to all stakeholders in minutes. Gaining an accurate picture of when passengers and bags will arrive at various touchpoints throughout the airport lets you optimize your processes and plan with confidence.

Better Forecast is part of Better Airport® – the world’s leading connected operations platform for airport operators.

Better Forecast lets your airport:

Move beyond static planning with granular forecasts

Better Forecast delivers highly detailed, flight-by-flight predictions to improve operational efficiency based on passenger, baggage flows, transfer, and hold system data.

Introduce faster, smarter forecasting with machine learning

Say goodbye to manual spreadsheet updates. Machine learning automates forecasting, reducing update times from days to minutes allowing you to adjust operations based on real-time data.

Ensure seamless integration for greater operational impact

Better Forecast integrates with your existing airport systems to utilize existing data and turn it into actionable predictions that drive real improvements.

The high level of detail and the increased accuracy of the forecast has improved the confidence level throughout the business. The forecast now serves as an essential foundation for optimizing security resource planning in London Luton Airport.

Neil ThomsonOperations Director, @ London Luton Airport

Case:

London Luton saves 160 minutes on forecasting every week

Discover how London Luton Airport managed to transform the task of forecasting from a time-consuming and complex task dependent on one specialized employee to a quick, accurate and accessible commodity.

Read the case study

Forecast every aspect of your operations

Unlike traditional forecasting, Better Forecast provides a unified, multi-metric approach, covering everything from passengers, baggage flows, transfer data, and hold systems on a per-flight basis – everything your airport gathers data on, we can forecast.

With accurate forecasts, airports can begin to combat capacity constraints by transitioning towards demand-based operations, optimizing resources in response to actual passenger and baggage flows.

A thumbnail of a webinar where our team member describes forecasting of timestamps

Webinar: Forecasting of Timestamps

Many airports rely on generic estimates and static buffers for flight arrivals and departures, but even small timing inaccuracies can lead to inefficient planning and wasted resources. By more accurately predicting timestamps—like taxi-in, on-block, off-block, and taxi-out—airports can plan more precisely, react faster, and operate more efficiently.

Watch our webinar as Tor Fog Justesen, Chief Product Officer at Copenhagen Optimization, shares how AI-driven forecasting and intelligent buffers help airports optimize their operations to:

Improve taxi and off-block time predictions
Enable smarter baggage, border, and stand/gate planning
Plan turnarounds and decrease last-minute reallocations

Watch the webinar

Book cover of airport forecasting guide by Copenhagen Optimization

Download guide:

3 steps to elevating your airport forecasting and operational performance

As complexity increases and change becomes constant, legacy tools like spreadsheets are no longer enough. So how can airports create forecasts that are not only accurate but also adaptive, collaborative, and actionable?

Download the guide and discover how to:

Leave your spreadsheets behind and embrace automation
Make forecasts actionable and available to all
Use machine learning to improve continuously

Download guide

Woman standing in an airport, looking out at the terminal area

Better Forecast FAQ

What does airport passenger forecasting software predict?

Airport passenger forecasting software predicts how many passengers are expected and when they will reach different parts of the airport. Better Forecast provides passenger and baggage forecasts at flight and processing-point level. That gives planners a demand picture to use when preparing resources and staffing, rather than treating a daily passenger total as the operating plan.

What data should our airport prepare for a forecasting demo with your team?

Start with the flight schedule, historical passenger and baggage volumes, and information about when passengers reach the process being planned. The useful data depends on the forecast and the decision it supports. For a Better Forecast demo, identify available sources, update frequency and known gaps so the forecasting scope can be agreed around the airport's actual data. Then, bring it all to us, and we’ll walk through it together.

What is a passenger presentation profile?

A passenger presentation profile describes when passengers arrive at a particular airport process relative to their flight. For example, passengers on the same departure do not all reach security together. Using a presentation profile alongside expected passenger numbers helps planners understand the timing of demand, rather than assuming that the flight departure time represents the checkpoint peak.

Why use flight-by-flight forecasts instead of daily passenger totals?

Flight-by-flight forecasts show how individual services contribute to demand throughout the day. Two days with similar passenger totals can create different pressure on check-in, security or border operations because the flight mix and timing differ. Better Forecast supplies this more detailed demand picture so downstream planning can focus on when and where capacity will be needed.

How should an airport evaluate passenger forecast accuracy?

Evaluate the forecast against actual volumes at the location, time interval and planning horizon that matter to the operation. A good daily total can still miss a busy period. Agree the baseline and error measures before evaluation, then examine peak periods and different traffic conditions as well as averages. No single accuracy percentage describes every airport or forecasting use case.

Can Better Forecast connect with existing airport systems?

Better Forecast is designed to use data from existing airport systems within the Better Airport platform's API-first integration approach. The implementation still needs an agreed data scope: which system owns each input, how it is exchanged and how often it updates. Compatibility with a particular vendor or interface should be assessed against the airport's actual technical environment.

How does Better Forecast support staffing and resource planning?

Better Forecast provides the expected passenger and baggage volumes that inform planning. Other Better Airport modules translate forecast demand into resource and staffing requirements for specific processes. Better Shift then creates shifts and builds rosters, and Better Deployment manages day-of task assignments. This separates the demand prediction from the decisions about what to open and who should do the work.

The Better Airport software suite - get to know us module by module

Better Airport is a cloud-based airport management platform that gives airports of all sizes a simpler way to run core operations. The core modules of the Better Airport suite can be mixed and matched to fit your operational needs.

Click on the modules below to learn more.