About ACRIS
ACI’s Aviation Community Recommended Information Services, known as ACRIS, sets the standard for information and data exchange in the aviation community, helping airports meet the demands of today and the future.
ACRIS defines a framework for airports, airlines, partners, and suppliers to share information across different companies and providers.
ACRIS is central to efficient airport operations and develops global airport standards such as the ACRIS Semantic Model, which complements similar standards from other aviation organisations such as the IATA Airline Industry Data Model (AIDM) and the ICAO/SESAR ATM Information Reference Model (AIRM).
The definition and implementation of standardised business processes and interoperable IT solutions is a vital issue for the global aviation industry, especially as a way to improve efficiency and to increase revenues. This is not only valid within one stakeholder group (e.g., airlines), but also between different groups such as airlines and airports.
To be successful, each service in a collection of information services should be consistent with every other service and should be based on a common understanding of the airport business. Planning and prioritising of service definitions will benefit from this common understanding. The ACRIS Semantic Model provides the platform for this.
ACRIS is supported by:
ACRIS Governance
ACRIS is based on a Recommended Practice (RP) that provides general guidance to define web services and APIs in a service-oriented architecture approach. The RP is supported by additional (supporting) documents, the production of which falls under the responsibility of the ACRIS Working Group (WG).
The ACRIS governance is guided by the following principles:
Join ACRIS
Why join the ACRIS Community?
The exchange of meaningful information is vital to the aviation industry. Benefit from the expertise of other aviation professionals by participating in ACRIS, and share experience and expertise to help improve information standards, whether in a business/domain or technical/technology perspective.
Membership of ACRIS allows full access to the ACRIS Semantic Model, and the opportunity to participate in ACRIS projects.
Members of the ACRIS Community, may also join the ACRIS Working Group (with observer status for non-ACI members) and benefit from information sharing, discussions, and events.
Joining the ACRIS Community?
Please complete and submit the registration form to request access to the ACRIS Members pages or for access to the ACRIS Semantic Model.
Community membership and model access is free to ACI members and World Business Partners.
ACI can quote an access fee to non-ACI members on an individual basis.
Feel free to contact us at airportit@aci.aero.
ACRIS Case Studies
Airports that are not capable of providing rich, real-time, and accurate digital information about their facilities and operations will fail to capitalize on most of the technological advances of the next 10 years. As a first step, an airport must conform its information to industry standards, to allow partners, vendors, and applications to consume their data and create valuable services and products. The following case studies are live implementations of ACRIS across ACI Member airports.
Baggage management is rapidly evolving, with new processes being continuously introduced. The current messaging standards do not provide an easy way to support baggage system integration and innovation.
By implementing Baggage XML in ACRIS, airports have access to a common standard that is accepted by all stakeholders in the baggage chain, with a common understanding of the data elements used, their meaning and their relationship to other data items.
Benefits:
- Use of modern, scalable, and low-cost, cloud-based infrastructure and services to reduce the per-transaction cost of messaging.
- A human readable, version-controlled data structure which is simple to work with.
- Improved data content; the new messaging standard allows new passenger services and functions.
Long wait times, especially at the security checkpoint, are known to be a significant source of stress for passengers and have a direct impact on customer satisfaction. There is a growing recognition that providing accurate, real-time data to passengers can help to alleviate that stress, and significantly improve customer experience.
Benefits:
The ability to communicate accurate and meaningful information to passengers, airlines and governments is a cornerstone for improving efficiency. By using ACRIS, ACI has set a new a standard in the industry for wait times to be communicated in a consistent, transparent and simple manner.
A-CDM is about partners working together and making decisions based on more accurate and higher quality information. By using ACRIS for A-CDM, every piece of information has exactly the same meaning for every partner involved.
A-CDM allows for better common situational awareness through information sharing between key partners at the airport. Improved information allows the airline, its service providers and the airport to operate proactively. More accurate and regular flight status updates help airport partners anticipate arriving aircraft, prepare them for the next flight and achieve on-time departure, with optimum productivity of resources.
Benefits:
Increased efficiency of aircraft turnaround and pre-departure sequencing.
Common Use is a fundamental shift in the philosophy of airport space utilization. It allows the airport operator to use existing space more efficiently, thus increasing airport capacity without necessarily constructing new gates, concourses, terminals, or check-in counters.
Cloud-based common use will be the cornerstone of more efficient, touchless and flexible operations.
Benefits:
Common use enables airport operators and airlines to move the check-in process further from the airport, thus allowing passengers to perform processes remotely, sometimes at off-site terminals.
In some cases, the passenger can complete the check-in process, including baggage check, before ever entering the airport. This allows passengers to travel more easily, without the need to carry their baggage.
Using the ACRIS Semantic Model, airports have defined the Airport Geospatial Information Model (AGIM)—a standard model for storing geospatial information about airports.
The next version of the AGIM will allow airports to serve geospatial information needs, including maps, from one model—unlike today where every application needs a different map.
The model is also designed to allow access to mass consumers of airport maps, such as Apple and Google, to information-rich and standard airport maps.
Benefits:
Real-time wayfinding inside the airport and terminal buildings to passengers and other stakeholders.
COVID-19 created an unprecedented global challenge for the aviation industry. Many travel restrictions were lifted and many new health-related measures have been implemented at airports.
Communicating COVID-19 safety measures to airlines, passengers, business partners, social media sites, and search engines is vital to build community confidence in your airport and our industry.
Information collected from airports is published on a web-based portal and through a mobile app, as well as an API based on the ACRIS standard that enables third parties such as airlines and other apps to access the data.
Benefits:
A single source of accurate data, shared with passengers and industry stakeholders
If you have any questions, please contact us at airportit@aci.aero.
ACRIS APIs
The ACRIS Working Group has developed several Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) that are available to the aviation community and the public. The specification of the APIs has been defined using the ACRIS Semantic Model.
The ACRIS Working Group developed the Passenger Wait Times Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) using the ACRIS Semantic Model.
Purpose
It is difficult for passengers and the wider travel industry to obtain information on the actual and expected waiting times at airport security checkpoints.
In the United States of America, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has mandated that airports capture and provide information on how long passengers need to wait at security checkpoints.
A set of standard APIs makes this information readily available to passengers and other stakeholders.
ACI has developed a standard for expressing Services provided by Concession Facilities for the aviation community. The initiative is part of the ACI ACRIS (Aviation Community Recommended Information Services) Working Group.
Purpose
The API provides information on the concessions available at participating airports such as food and beverage, retail, amenity and other services.
The ACRIS Working Group developed the Airport Health Measures Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) using the ACRIS Semantic Model.
Purpose
The rules and regulations on travel are changing quickly due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It is difficult for passengers and the wider travel industry to obtain information on the measures taken by airports to mitigate the risks posed by Covid-19.
A set of standard APIs makes this information readily available to passengers and other stakeholders.
The ACRIS working group developed the Airport Health Testing and Travel Information Standard Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) using the ACRIS Semantic Model.
Purpose
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, passengers require access to up-to-date information relating to health regulations and accurate information about testing services on offer at airports.
A set of standard APIs makes this information readily available to passengers (and other stakeholders) in order to plan and execute their journeys.
The ACRIS Semantic Model
What is the ACRIS Semantic Model?
The organization and accessibility of large volumes of data is a cornerstone strategic objective of any modern airport.
The ACRIS Semantic Model was created to capture, represent, and specify the airport community’s common knowledge in a standardized and accessible manner.
The ACRIS Semantic Model has a number of layers comprising the airport vocabulary of business terms.
The knowledge layer contains the main concepts that are of interest to an airport and its partners. The data element library layer contains detailed information on the data items, including standard naming conventions. A technology realisation layer represents the components such as message interface schemas (e.g., XML Schema Definitions (XSDs) or JSON schemas), data models for information exchange (e.g., Resource Description Framework (RDF)), rich semantic languages (e.g., Web Ontology Language (OWL)) and database schemas.
The ACRIS semantic model enables the specification of re-useable information services (ACI-ACRIS Services) across the Airport community. The Semantic Model has enabled the completion of initiatives such as standard definitions for self bag drop, Seamless Travel, A-CDM (Airport Collaborative Decision Making), airport maps, and others.
The ACRIS semantic model provides an organising framework based on IT industry best practices and ISO standards for documenting the airport ecosystem’s vocabulary, knowledge, re-usable standard information components, and data structures.
Airports developing Open APIs and common use apps are encouraged to base their definitions on the ACRIS Semantic Model, in order to promote interoperability and connectivity. The ACRIS model is fully aligned with IATA’s AIDM model where elements are common.
What is the ACRIS Semantic Model?
The ACRIS Semantic Model is hosted on a cloud platform.
There is a formal change management process where members can request additions and modifications to the master version of the ACRIS Semantic Model. All changes are reviewed and approved or otherwise by the ACRIS Working Group.
The master version of the ACRIS Semantic Model is periodically frozen, as decided by the ACRIS Working Group. Modelling versions are cloned from the frozen master to enable registered users to develop their own models within the ACRIS Semantic Model framework.
Access to the full ACRIS Semantic Model is restricted to members only. For a short period of time, the Semantic Model won’t be available due to undergoing changes in our portals. We will update this information as we evolve this situation. In the meantime if you require additional information please write us at : airportit@aci.aero.
Do you want to Join the ACRIS Community?
Please complete and submit the registration form to request access to the ACRIS Members pages or for access to the ACRIS Semantic Model.
Contact Us
For general inquiries regarding ACI & the ACRIS Working Group: airportit@aci.aero.