The UFIS Mobile solutions have been developed to integrate hand-held devices such as walkie-talkies, smart phones, and personal digital assistants (PDAs) into the UFIS environment. Information can be sent from these devices to the airport operational database (AODB). Information includes timings such as man-at-bay, thumbs up, job start / end and first / last trip.
Apart from the sending of information from the hand-held devices to the AODB, information such as, but not restricted to, aircraft parking stands, names of staff assigned to handle a particular flight and estimated time of arrival (ETA) can be retrieved and displayed without the need for the staff to call the deployment centers for updates. Depending on the features of the devices as well as the services provided by the local telephone service provider, alerts and / or notifications can also be sent to the appropriate staff should there be changes to an aircraft parking bay or ETA for example. Staff at the deployment center can also send information such as lightning warnings to staff out on the tarmac.
The UFIS Mobile solutions form the basis, for example, of the iTrek project for SATS in Singapore. It is assisting staff on the ground in providing accurate and easy access to information without the need to call or make a trip back to the deployment centers as well as to communicate with the operation control staff and the personnel working on the same flight by messaging. iTrek also supports the operation control staff in overseeing the status of the operation in real time, in generating the service report and in communicating with the assisting staff by messaging and alerting on a personal, group or flight basis.