Bangalore International Airport Limited, AWS, and Intel announce new Joint Innovation Center

Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL), operator of Kempegowda International Airport, Bengaluru (BLR Airport), announced it will establish a Joint Innovation Center (JIC) with Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Intel to drive the development and adoption of digital solutions in aviation. This is the first JIC established by AWS outside of China and its first JIC dedicated to advancing the aviation industry.

The JIC is a customer-centric program by AWS that helps startups and enterprises from different industries and backgrounds to experience, learn, adopt, and expand on AWS services and programs. It does this through joint offerings from AWS and AWS Partners, and local governments. Working with AWS and Intel, BIAL will adopt Amazon innovation methodology to test and build customer-centric solutions through the JIC program and take an iterative approach to achieve successful outcomes.

“Modern air travel has been disrupted by the pandemic and is ripe for innovation. We are excited to strengthen our engagement with BIAL to help them explore new possibilities with digital technologies, develop enhanced experiences for travellers, and realize the vision of a digitized and smart airport,” said Rahul Sharma, president of public sector at Amazon Internet Services Private Limited (AISPL), India, and South Asia at AWS.

BLR Airport is the first airport in India built afresh in a new location on a public-private partnership (PPP) model. Since serving 10 million passengers from its inception in 2008, BLR Airport became the fastest growing airport in the world in 2018. It is currently the third largest airport in India.

Expected to begin operations at the BLR Airport in 2022, the JIC will focus on strengthening BIAL’s digital roadmap, driving digital innovation for the airport, providing a digitized and intuitive experience for travellers, and creating a positive impact for the community where the airport operates. Speaking on the announcement, Hari Marar, managing director and chief executive officer, BIAL said, “We are thrilled to extend our relationship with AWS to power two of our important focus areas: strengthen our digital roadmap towards making BLR Airport the best destination airport for travellers by leveraging the power of cloud computing and digital technologies, and create an environment for startups to innovate and advance in aviation and related domains.” He added that the new JIC will enable BIAL to develop modular, scalable, innovative digital solutions that can benefit all stakeholders in the aviation domain and help reimagine air travel in India.

The JIC will focus on developing technology solutions to enhance the passenger experience across retail, dining, and entertainment at the airport, and achieving operational efficiencies for BIAL. Once implemented, these solutions can be scaled to other airports in India and globally. Speaking on this, Kanishka Agiwal, head of service lines in AISPL, India, and South Asia at AWS said, “Digital technologies will undoubtedly shape the future of commercial aviation. The new JIC between BIAL, AWS, and Intel will experiment with a combination of technologies including cloud computing, blockchain, Internet of Things (IoT), analytics, machine learning (ML), artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, and augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR) to develop innovative solutions that can create a new paradigm for both traveller experience and operations.”

As part of the JIC, BIAL will also deploy Start-up Valley, a startup accelerator program that will offer an open innovation opportunity for startups to build and accelerate digital solutions in the aviation industry, the Airport City at BLR Airport, and related domains. The Start-up Valley will provide a structured engagement approach for startups to design, develop, and build their solutions, and test their solutions at BIAL. Through its collaboration with Intel, AWS will provide programmatic support that will match identified startups with mentorship. AWS and Intel will further support with AWS Credits, technical training, and access to an investor pool. These joint efforts between BIAL, AWS, and Intel will allow Indian startups to further develop their solutions for adoption and scale.

Learn more about AWS for startups and AWS for the public sector.

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