American Airlines' Plan for iBeacon Connectivity in Dallas and Beyond

American Airlines' Phil Easter, Director of Mobile Apps jokingly referenced beacons as "bacon" during a special press conference at the SITA IT Summit to announce that American Airlines would deploy the world's largest implementation of iBeacons at Dallas/Fort Worth's Terminal D. The reference to the pork product may have been a joke, intended to make what is for many an unfamiliar and perhaps worrying technology trend easier to relate to, but there is a rasher of truth to it. It's become clear that beacon technology, iBeacons as one example, could greatly benefit the transport and travel sectors, even before getting into potential additional advantages for marketers and retailers. SITA explains the technical features of iBeacon in particular and how it would be used by American at DFW: "iBeacon is a technology Apple introduced with iOS 7 that uses Bluetooth Low Energy and geofencing to trigger the display of location-relevant information on devices at the right time and in the right situation. With beacons, airlines can easily provide passengers with indoor directions, walk times to gates, lounge access and alerts about boarding. Knowing where a passenger is before sending information enables more effective communication." Explaining why American specifically chose to go the route of Apple's iBeacon technology, Easter said: "The fact that