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Manchester is at the forefront of some of these developments, "We are looking at ways of tracking our passengers through the airport using Bluetooth mobile phone technology to work out where passengers' mobile phones are," reports Smith. This year the project is focused on the security/search process, next year it will roll out to the time it takes ­passengers to get through the door, security/checking, and how long they spend in the retail area, through to the gates. "It helps us to identify hot spots, track performance at key services like security search," says Smith. "It is an example of how we are investing in ­technology to enable the processes." And as this technology works on common infrastructure it would not be a problem to roll it out to the rest of the airports in the group.

Manchester already has self-service ­boarding pass gates at the entrance to the security area and Smith says the approach taken would also allow them to use the ­technology for the automated gating of flights. Manchester is also introducing self-processing gates in the arrivals area. In conjunction with the UK Border Authority, it has just started a trial for face recognition automated entry gates for people who have micro-chipped passports. So far the trial seems to be going okay, according to Smith. "I would anticipate that we will do more around the arrival process. Arrivals can be the Cinderella of the airport experience."

Manchester is at the forefront of some of these developments, "We are looking at ways of tracking our passengers through the airport using Bluetooth mobile phone technology to work out where passengers' mobile phones are," reports Smith. This year the project is focused on the security/search process, next year it will roll out to the time it takes ­passengers to get through the door, security/checking, and how long they spend in the retail area, through to the gates. "It helps us to identify hot spots, track performance at key services like security search," says Smith. "It is an example of how we are investing in ­technology to enable the processes." And as this technology works on common infrastructure it would not be a problem to roll it out to the rest of the airports in the group.