Dublin airport was a hive of activity on Sunday morning, with thousands of travellers setting off to or returning from a wide mix of destinations. As I walked into Terminal 2 at around 9am on Sunday morning I was struck by just how much travelling has changed since I was a kid – and we have technology to thank for that.

I travel quite a bit for work and am always on the look out for ways to make travelling as pain free as possible. I walked into T2 and noticed that Aer Lingus have a new row of machines, which allow passengers to tag their luggage before placing it onto the belt. The new devices are located just behind the Check In machines. These two techie stations made the process of checking in a breeze for those about to take flight.

I didn’t get to use them, however, as I had checked in on the Aer Lingus app the day before. My boarding pass was downloaded onto my phone and stored both in the Aer Lingus app and the Apple Wallet app on my iPhone. Extremely handy.

Once through security, I grabbed a coffee and logged onto the free Wifi. This kept me entertained as a waited for my gate to be announced. Whilst waiting, I noticed groups of people loitering around the display screens. At the bottom of the screen a message popped up: “download our app”; and so I did.

The gate info for my flight was there, within the app, 20 minutes ahead of the screens in the airport. How awesome is that? This app also gives an estimated waiting time to get through security, a map of both terminals and park information. 

There's a whole host of applications available to download for free that will make your travelling experience that bit easier. You'll find a list of recommendations here. 

Pioneers

I am in Vienna this week for the Pioneers Festival which highlights and celebrates the start up scene in Austria. You can follow the action over on Twitter or right here.