Aviation RFID Prominent At Forthcoming RFID Europe Conference By Dr. Peter Harrop, IDTechEx

IDTechEx predicts that the expenditure on RFID systems for the air industry will rise to $0.76B in 2017. That estimate may need to be increased if the new, broader approach taken by the industry continues to bear fruit. The tagging of baggage is now a "done deal" thanks to IATA agreeing a single specification by unanimous vote in 2005. It is now rolling out globally, improving security, cost and efficiency, not least in the high profile aspect of lost baggage. It will peak at two billion tags yearly and the air cargo industry, with similar numbers, is starting to mimic that success. But there is an even bigger picture that will be presented at a forthcoming conference.

The leading RFID event in Europe is the IDTechEx RFID Europe conference which will be in Cambridge, UK, on 18-19 September. It will have presentations by IATA, Air France KLM, Manchester Airport Group MAG and T-Systems on RFID in aviation. MAG runs airports in Australia and the UK and has used RFID for optimizing airport retailing by tracking consumers. T-Systems in Germany has been tracking Ground Service Equipment. Others orchestrate aircraft parts supply, taxis and buses and collect tolls at airports using RFID.

Andrew Price of IATA, Geneva will give the latest on the baggage tagging rollout. In the closely allied area of postal RFID, International Post of Belgium, City Link UK and Delivery Management UK will report on the latest innovations. Tube Lines, Sony and BP will look at the logistics applications of RFID. RFID cards are important to airport retailing, gold card privilege schemes, border control and secure access in airports. The conference therefore has a complete parallel session, with nine speakers, to cover this. It includes the huge new market of buying RFID tagged goods with a mobile phone held in close proximity that mimics a payment card. Many new technologies and the standards situation are also in the line up, which even covers a review of the situation in Japan, an early adopter of many new forms of RFID.

For more information go to www.IDTEchEx.com/RFIDeurope

IDTechEx Conference Dates:

Printed Electronics Asia 10-11 September, Tokyo, Japan, www.IDTechEx.com/peAsia
RFID Europe 18-19 September, Cambridge, UK, www.IDTechEx.com/RFIDeurope
Printed Electronics USA 12-15 November, San Francisco, USA, www.IDTechEx.com/peUSA
Active RFID & RTLS 5-6 December, Dallas, USA, www.IDTechEx.com/active
RFID Smart Labels USA 2008 20-21 February, Boston, USA, www.idtechex.com/rfidUSA Printed Electronics Europe 2008 April, Dresden, Germany, www.idtechex.com/peEUROPE

SOURCE: IDTechEx