Travel tech: At Heathrow, travel is a game

This week, I was given £900,000 to improve London’s Heathrow Airport, with a mission to accommodate 10-million additional passengers. My first decision was to choose between expanding public transport, adding taxi lanes or building more parking. Every option promised happier passengers and greater profits, but each came with a price.

Fortunately, I was spending virtual money in an artificial intelligence (AI) simulation at the Oracle AI World conference in Las Vegas. Heathrow’s actual expansion decisions remain in slightly more experienced hands.

The game, called Cleared for Growth, uses Oracle’s Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) AI technology to demonstrate how airports can assess competing investment priorities. It was developed with Heathrow around a real business challenge: increasing passenger capacity while improving the passenger experience and profitability.

The opening screen of Oracle’s Great AI Expedition introduced me as a “tech-savvy hero” whose mission was to make smart growth choices. A friendly cartoon robot offered assistance, while a digital passport recorded my progress in the form of AI Miles.

Photo supplied.

The first challenge, getting passengers to the airport, presented three investment choices, each with a projected cost, increase in passenger satisfaction and financial return.

A public transport expansion, involving a new Heathrow rail station, would cost £100,000, increase passenger satisfaction by 5% and contribute £50,000 to profitability. Additional taxi and limousine lanes would cost £175,000, improve satisfaction by 10% and generate £120,000. Expanding parking would cost £250,000, lift satisfaction by 15% and add £105,000 in profit.

These were figures created for the simulation, illustrating the arithmetic behind airport investment. More expensive options could deliver greater passenger satisfaction without necessarily producing the best financial return.

The next challenge, Boarding the Plane, examined how to move passengers efficiently from the terminal to their aircraft. The options included buses, automated boarding technology and jet bridges, each addressing a different aspect of the journey.

By the end, my Heathrow had £725,000 remaining in its virtual wallet, passenger satisfaction of 55% and profitability of £575,000. Has AI aided the decisions, both of those numbers would have increased somewhat.

Photo supplied.

Gary Miller, Oracle’s customer success officer and executive vice-president, told Gadget that the exercise had been developed from Heathrow’s own requirements.

“Heathrow came to us. They want to optimise the airport for more passengers, a better customer experience and optimisation.

“It’s a game we built, but it’s actually real agents. You play the game, and you get to optimise. You make decisions to optimise, like nicer lounge, more security lanes. And then you get an agentic application that actually does the analysis and says, here’s the optimal thing.”

The simulation uses Oracle EPM AI to evaluate players’ choices, demonstrating how the technology can assist with planning decisions.

“It was a real business case that they had, and we made a game out of solving that business case.”

The game demonstrates decision-making technology, rather than AI taking over Heathrow’s physical expansion planning. The airport already uses Oracle software across a range of business operations.

Heathrow handled almost 85-million passengers in 2025 and supports more than 90,000 people working on site. It uses Oracle Fusion Cloud systems to manage finance and human resources. Oracle Fusion Data Intelligence combines financial information with passenger data to improve reporting and planning. Oracle Billing and Revenue Management handles complex financial transactions with airlines.

Photo supplied.

The systems help Heathrow manage operations that extend far beyond the movement of aircraft.

Alan Petrie, Heathrow’s head of Corporate Data and Analytics, described the value of the technology earlier this year: “Oracle Fusion Data Intelligence lets us go beyond just the numbers by combining revenue and passenger data to provide meaningful insight into what’s happening in our business.”

Miller said the Heathrow simulation could be adapted for other airports, allowing them to examine their own investment decisions.

The exercise also showed the competing demands on airport management. Passengers may prefer shorter queues and easier terminal access, while the airport must consider the cost of providing those improvements.

Miller said the central problem came directly from Heathrow.

“You were balancing investment, passenger experience and profitability,” he said. “We want to make more money, but we want to make it a better experience. So how do you solve that problem?”

* Arthur Goldstuck is CEO of World Wide Worx, editor-in-chief of Gadget.co.za, editor of GadgetWings, and author of “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to AI – The African Edge”.

The post Travel tech: At Heathrow, travel is a game appeared first on Gadget.