Airport Technology

JFK Terminal One trials Ink’s disaster recovery system

The Terminal One group trialled the system in a live environment to ensure smooth operations in the event of system failure.

The JFK Terminal One Group Association (TOGA) has successfully trialled technology company Ink Innovation’s disaster recovery system at the New York airport.

TOGA, the group responsible for terminal services at the airport’s 100% international terminal, worked with the company to test the Ink DRS software as part of the airport’s ongoing development program.

The system is designed to ensure that operations can go uninterrupted in the event of an emergency or system failure, with airlines Air New Zealand and Korean Air also involved in the trial Terminal One trial, as well as Air France, one of the three airlines that form part of TOGA.

Steve Rowland, executive director of Terminal One, said: “TOGA is committed to providing world-class service to the people of New York State and New York City. With the construction of JFK, we are urged to take practical actions to mitigate the risks of outages.

“Ink DRS is the only system we know is running on tablets and mobile phones, which are independent of the airport infrastructure.”

As part of the trial, Ink DRS completed a Cold Backup flow in a live environment including the creation of flights, seat mapping and registrations as per airline requirements, as well as exchanging passenger and bag data with airport systems to continue operations along the passenger journey.

Agents at the terminal were also able to replicate the passenger processing flow after 45 minutes of training, while the system maintained a rate of 50 passengers per hour at check-in and processing time of six seconds for boarding.

Blaine Powell, chief sales officer at Ink, said: “While the primary purpose of this trial is to introduce our DRS risk management capabilities in JFK Terminal One, the system integration with our mobile sets will also allow TOGA to observe how to redesign passenger flow within restricted areas.”

Alongside installing systems such as Ink’s DRS, the multi-billion dollar developments at JFK Airport will include a new international Terminal 6 and a new Terminal One set to begin opening in 2026.