SYN+AIR: Synergies between transport modes and Air transportation

Use Cases - EC Funded Projects

The SYN+AIR project, funded by the EU's H2020 initiative, aimed to design a Smart Contracts Framework for data sharing among transport service providers (TSPs), ensuring seamless multimodal journeys. It focused on generating common goals for TSPs to facilitate data sharing and enhance travel planning and operations. The project centered around air travel and developed smart contracts to improve collaboration between TSPs. SYN+AIR also analyzed data from travel apps to enrich these contracts, contributing significantly to data management practices in multimodal transport.
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This project was funded by the European Union as part of the H2020-EU 3.4.7 – SESAR 3 Joint Undertaking, grant agreement number No. 894116

The main objective of SYN+AIR was to design a smart contracts framework to support data sharing among transport service providers (TSP), to guarantee traveller multimodal satisfactory experience.

Initially SYN+AIR had to generate common goals for TSPs that would justify data sharing, facilitating the user to execute a seamless D2D journey. SYN+AIR employed a partially participatory (in terms of validation) and partially, technology driven approach (in terms of defining data flow among TSPs) that was user-centric; customer journeys were generated for the entire multimodal chain and SYN+AIR analysed how those journeys could be facilitated through improved planning and operations activities (following the ATFCM phases: strategic, pre-tactical, tactical) powered by data sharing. For the analysis, air travelling was placed in the epicentre, as all multimodal chains consider the usage of air travelling.

Consequently, a “Smart Contracts Framework” was generated based on a Business Process Model. Smart Contracts are agreements among TSPs that define data sharing criteria (scope, parties’ obligations, contract’s time span and fulfilment criteria). TSPs can use the agreements for structuring a collaboration scheme with another TSP either strategically or tactically. 

Data generated by Travel Companion apps was also analysed in the context of enriching the Smart Contracts Framework allowing TSPs to improve their activities and execute informed decisions. 

Finally, SYN+AIR determined what additional recommendations could be provided to travellers based on the execution of a Smart Contract.

Data management and usage was the most crucial topic in SYN+AIR. The clear definition of what data to share, when and why is currently lacking from the state-of-practice and is where the project performed significant contributions.

My-TRAC Travel Companion was used as an example/research foundation of generating data for the TSPs which in turn were able to execute informed and data-driven decisions.