RUSHING frantically round an airport trying to find check-in, security, restaurants and toilets will be a thing of the past in Spanish terminals for anyone who has a SmartPhone, laptop or tablet – a new interactive map has been created to help you find your way about.
National telecommunications giant Telefónica, along with Spain's State-owned airport management company AENA, have jointly devised a system which works along the same lines as Google Maps: Your current location is shown, and you can type in your required destination and be given a route to it, with the 'dot' displaying where you are as you walk along.
Although Spanish airports are well signposted anyway – meaning even the biggest international ones, such as Barcelona's El Prat and Madrid's Adolfo Suárez-Barajas, are not too scary for first-time visitors – nobody wants to walk farther than absolutely necessary when dragging a suitcase, when they need to get in a last-minute coffee and sandwich before boarding, or when nature calls and they have to get to the ladies' or gents' as soon as possible.
It also helps to know how long you've got before you start setting off for crucial points like security and boarding gates – there's nothing more stress-inducing than finding out your gate number 20 minutes before the flight closes and realising you're a half-hour walk away.
AENAmaps helps you calculate how long it will take you to get somewhere, and also shows up everything else along the route – that way, if you find out there's a shop you'd particularly like to pop into on the way to the gates, you can plan to set off earlier.
The programme can be accessed via the AENA mobile phone App, compatible with Android and iOS and available for download through the Apple store or Google Playstore or, if your phone is not able to use either of these – as is the case with some older SmartPhone models – you can find it on AENA's website.
Telefónica says it is continually developing AENAmaps to widen its user scope, including setting up alternative routes for passengers with mobility problems, or wheelchair-users.
The application will shortly be launched for Adolfo Suárez-Barajas airport in the capital, and gradually roll out to all other terminals in the country.
AENAmaps is shown in the above photograph, taken by Telefónica.
