Kansai Airports enhances customer experience and operational efficiency

Kansai Airports streamlines operations with direct interconnection

Improved operational efficiency, enhanced customer experience achieved with direct connectivity to Amadeus AODB while laying the groundwork for future cloud services expansion.

Connecting databases across distance

Kansai Airports, which operates both Kansai International Airport and Osaka International Airport, serves as the regional gateway to overseas destinations in the Kansai region located in the southern-central portion of Japan’s main island Honshū.

In recent years, Kansai Airports has increased business activities to support key initiatives designed to streamline airport procedures, promote safety and security in both airports as well as reduce the environmental impact of its operations. Renovation work is also being done at its Terminal 1 to increase capacities for international flights and improve passenger experience.

Kansai Airports is also actively leveraging IT to improve the efficiency of its airport operations. Crucial to the program is the deployment of Amadeus Airport Operational Database (AODB), an integrated system designed to aggregate and centralize all information related to airport operations. The system shares real-time information with partner organizations, such as airline companies and aviation regulators. By connecting to and updating flight data promptly, Amadeus AODB optimizes various airport resources like parking lots, gates and check-in counters. Additionally, the aggregated data enables accurate airport demand analyses and forecasting.

Implementation challenges occurred when the overseas data center that hosted Amadeus AODB had difficulty connecting with the Kansai Airports networks via the internet. “For the AODB to communicate with Kansai Airports domestic networks in a secure but cost-effective manner, a direct network interconnection is necessary. That, however, would incur extremely high implementation and monthly operating costs and it would take six months to complete,” explained Hideyuki Moriike, AODB Project Manager, IT Business Applications Group, Kansai Airports.

Connectivity drives innovation

Through Amadeus’ recommendation, the Kansai Airports AODB team reached out to Equinix and determined that the cost-effective network connections they require can be achieved by leveraging Equinix data centers and software-defined interconnection service via Equinix Fabric®.

A key factor that led to the choice of Equinix Fabric is its global track record of interconnecting with Amadeus and AODB’s in-house expertise. “In addition to the security guarantees, Equinix was able to provide bandwidth of over 50 Mbps, which easily exceeded AODB’s bandwidth requirement of 10 Mbps,” said Koji Yamazaki, Network Engineer, IT Infrastructure Group, Kansai Airports.

The project was in its full-scale network construction within two months of implementation. “We held numerous online meetings with Amadeus and Equinix regarding the design and architecture of the system, and Equinix always provided us with technical support and detailed design suggestions,” said Moriike.

The Equinix service desk was on hand to answer all inquiries from the Kansai Airports team as Equinix facilitated thorough design and configuration work including overall network configuration, design of the BGP-based routing system and material development.

When network configuration was required at the height of the pandemic and the Kansai Airports team could not visit the IBX data center in person, the team constantly contacted the Equinix service desk for assistance. “Even on weekends, they immediately responded, and they intuitively understood what we needed. It was by far the best service desk I’ve ever encountered,” Yamazaki said.

Stability from day one

Today, Kansai Airports connects to the IBX data center in Tokyo through a main line and a backup WAN line as well as to the Amadeus data center in Germany via Equinix Fabric. The connection to the AODB, implemented at an impressive speed, has been stable from day one. “Thanks to Equinix, we were able to interconnect with Amadeus’ overseas network within two months. This left us plenty of time to complete our system integration work with AODB,” Moriike said.

The biggest benefit of implementing at Equinix for Kansai Airports is cost efficiency. “We have reduced costs by 50%–60% using Equinix compared with other service providers.” Moriike noted.

In addition, Kansai Airports has achieved a high-speed, low-cost connection to overseas cloud services through Equinix. In the future, Kansai Airports is looking to connect with other cloud services (such as AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform) and can consider further rehosting (“lift and shift cloud migration”) its on-premises IT systems to the cloud.

“Even for direct connections to the cloud, Equinix is a more cost-effective service provider than other telecommunications companies. Completing a lift and shift cloud migration would be an enormous task, and we believe Equinix will provide their support across all facets of such a complex project,” Moriike concluded.

Benefits

Fast implementation

AODB connectivity efficiently up and running within two months.

Cost-efficient interconnection

Realized 50%–60% savings compared with other service providers.

High-speed cloud connectivity

Enabled connectivity with other cloud services; provision to move on-premises IT systems to the cloud.