It is no secret that the Covid-19 pandemic has impacted and will continue to impact travellers and their travel plans for the foreseeable future. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has predicted that global airline revenues will fall 50 percent year on year in 2020, dropping from $838 billion in 2019 to $419 billion this year.
It has been a tough year for the travel sector and the wider tourism ecosystem. In response, leaders in international travel have been working together to achieve effective recovery protocols by developing meaningful action plans that optimise sector-wide recovery efforts.
The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) has launched a “Safe Travels” global safety and hygiene stamp for destinations with protocols backed by the United Nations World Tourism Organisation and based on recommendations from the World Health Organisation and the Centres for Disease Control.
People’s enthusiasm to get back to flying however is enormous and a broad alliance of industry partners is working hard to deliver solutions such as, airport testing that will help restore customer confidence in their travel experience.
As travellers slowly take to the skies again, they can expect their airport experience to be somewhat different and new sets of protocols in place to ensure the safest, most seamless experience possible.
With potentially thousands of people inside the limited space of an airport, contactless, touch-free experiences, which are pre-bookable where possible, will become a priority. From the moment they arrive, passengers will find themselves subject to manual or automatic temperature checks on entry to the airport and as they move between different areas, social distancing will be in place and plastic screens and dividers will be prominent.
Long waits in line and interaction with airport staff could be largely avoided through a system of contactless check-in and bag drops, along with passengers being given specific time slots for passport control. Dubai International Airport has already implemented an integrated biometric path at Terminal 3 which includes a mix of facial and iris recognition to allow passengers to check in for their flight, complete immigration formalities, and board their flights, reducing document checks and the possibility of passengers queueing up along the way.
Increasingly, we expect passengers to be able to pre-purchase many of the products and services they would normally seek at the airport and the most successful airport operators and concession holders will be those that reach out to passengers and engage them well in advance of travel. The entire process of pre-ordering products and services will need to be simple and seamless, requiring operators to develop unified online storefronts and apps that remove the need to deal with different retailers and F&B providers.
This will require the development of end-to-end systems for payment and delivery of products and services across the airport. Even before Covid-19, travellers were demanding app-based, on-demand services. According to Collinson’s recent Airport Experience survey, 46 percent of travellers who spend more than $200 at the airport would spend even more if they could shop via an app and pick up their purchases at their departure gate.
As they roll out new apps and unified storefronts, airports and their partners will invest in the development of one-to-one relationships with customers. Collinson’s research found that 95 percent of travellers surveyed are interested in a formal relationship with airports. This will allow more effective promotion of priority services, such as sleep pods, wellness services and premium dining options. These offerings will help improve passengers’ airport experience and will provide an important source of ancillary revenue for airports and their concession partners.
Covid-19 notwithstanding, airports have been working hard to improve the passenger experience for some time with the desire to shift the perception from an experience to be simply endured, to one to be enjoyed as the first step of the journey. Collinson’s Airport Experience survey found that overall satisfaction with airports leapt from 50 percent in 2018 to 63 percent in 2019.
In the UAE, with four world leading airports, satisfaction was even higher at 75 percent in 2019. These higher levels of satisfaction are proven to positively impact bottom lines. Our research found that satisfied UAE residents spend on average $28 more per departure than dissatisfied or ambivalent travellers. The challenge for airport operators now will be to continue to deliver the best experience to their customers, whilst maintain the highest levels of health and safety standards.
In order to do so, the new normal calls for re-writing the etiquette of interaction with their customers. It is the opportune time for airports and their partners to collaborate and engage with passengers early to deliver a safe journey through a seamless traveller-centric ecosystem and easy-to-use experience.
Priyanka Lakhani is regional commercial director Middle East, Africa and Director South Asia at Collinson
Written by ITP
More of this topic
Rewriting travel etiquette in the airport new normal
Why travellers will find the airport experience much changed as they begin flying again after coronavirus
It is no secret that the Covid-19 pandemic has impacted and will continue to impact travellers and their travel plans for the foreseeable future. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has predicted that global airline revenues will fall 50 percent year on year in 2020, dropping from $838 billion in 2019 to $419 billion this year.
It has been a tough year for the travel sector and the wider tourism ecosystem. In response, leaders in international travel have been working together to achieve effective recovery protocols by developing meaningful action plans that optimise sector-wide recovery efforts.
The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) has launched a “Safe Travels” global safety and hygiene stamp for destinations with protocols backed by the United Nations World Tourism Organisation and based on recommendations from the World Health Organisation and the Centres for Disease Control.
People’s enthusiasm to get back to flying however is enormous and a broad alliance of industry partners is working hard to deliver solutions such as, airport testing that will help restore customer confidence in their travel experience.
As travellers slowly take to the skies again, they can expect their airport experience to be somewhat different and new sets of protocols in place to ensure the safest, most seamless experience possible.
With potentially thousands of people inside the limited space of an airport, contactless, touch-free experiences, which are pre-bookable where possible, will become a priority. From the moment they arrive, passengers will find themselves subject to manual or automatic temperature checks on entry to the airport and as they move between different areas, social distancing will be in place and plastic screens and dividers will be prominent.
Long waits in line and interaction with airport staff could be largely avoided through a system of contactless check-in and bag drops, along with passengers being given specific time slots for passport control. Dubai International Airport has already implemented an integrated biometric path at Terminal 3 which includes a mix of facial and iris recognition to allow passengers to check in for their flight, complete immigration formalities, and board their flights, reducing document checks and the possibility of passengers queueing up along the way.
Increasingly, we expect passengers to be able to pre-purchase many of the products and services they would normally seek at the airport and the most successful airport operators and concession holders will be those that reach out to passengers and engage them well in advance of travel. The entire process of pre-ordering products and services will need to be simple and seamless, requiring operators to develop unified online storefronts and apps that remove the need to deal with different retailers and F&B providers.
This will require the development of end-to-end systems for payment and delivery of products and services across the airport. Even before Covid-19, travellers were demanding app-based, on-demand services. According to Collinson’s recent Airport Experience survey, 46 percent of travellers who spend more than $200 at the airport would spend even more if they could shop via an app and pick up their purchases at their departure gate.
As they roll out new apps and unified storefronts, airports and their partners will invest in the development of one-to-one relationships with customers. Collinson’s research found that 95 percent of travellers surveyed are interested in a formal relationship with airports. This will allow more effective promotion of priority services, such as sleep pods, wellness services and premium dining options. These offerings will help improve passengers’ airport experience and will provide an important source of ancillary revenue for airports and their concession partners.
Covid-19 notwithstanding, airports have been working hard to improve the passenger experience for some time with the desire to shift the perception from an experience to be simply endured, to one to be enjoyed as the first step of the journey. Collinson’s Airport Experience survey found that overall satisfaction with airports leapt from 50 percent in 2018 to 63 percent in 2019.
In the UAE, with four world leading airports, satisfaction was even higher at 75 percent in 2019. These higher levels of satisfaction are proven to positively impact bottom lines. Our research found that satisfied UAE residents spend on average $28 more per departure than dissatisfied or ambivalent travellers. The challenge for airport operators now will be to continue to deliver the best experience to their customers, whilst maintain the highest levels of health and safety standards.
In order to do so, the new normal calls for re-writing the etiquette of interaction with their customers. It is the opportune time for airports and their partners to collaborate and engage with passengers early to deliver a safe journey through a seamless traveller-centric ecosystem and easy-to-use experience.
Priyanka Lakhani is regional commercial director Middle East, Africa and Director South Asia at Collinson
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