‘Horrible’ airport experiences
There is no doubt that the airport experience is rarely a positive one for airline passengers these days. Rarely a week goes by without a new media story about record-breaking delays or complaints – often related to obtrusive security checks and delays. Such as the BBC’s story this week entitled ‘Has the airport experience become horrible?’.
A three-hour delay at London Heathrow’s immigration desks was one of the latest headlines just last week. Not ideal timing for a city under the spotlight, with the Queen’s Golden Jubilee and London 2012 Olympics just around the corner.
I have travelled by airline myself three times in the last 3 weeks – and can report a less-than-satisfactory experience. No sensible person would deny the need for proper and rigorous security and immigration checks – but unfortunately when it comes to airline travel, these seem to go hand-in-hand with poor communication and poor customer service.
Mark Biwwa, an online marketing professional from Malta who has written his own blog on the subject, says it is the sheer lack of logic that creates stress for passengers.
“It’s things like not being able to take coffee through certain points, but then being able to buy one shortly after. Or magic numbers, like 100ml of liquid, that nobody knows who decides the threshold of,” he says.
“I can feel myself getting more tense and irritable around airports, because I know I’m going to get hassled, or told to stick to some ridiculous rules.
“Standing in the line at a security queue reminds me of a slaughterhouse line – it’s that kind of atmosphere, where everyone has submitted to being sheep following directives,” he says.
As I see it, there are two key ways the airport experience could be significantly improved for passengers:
- Invest in better screening technology.
- Focus on the passenger as a customer, not as a commodity.
New technology already exists that can make the security process less intrusive – such as the body scanner. Last year Signature Flight Support at London Luton airport invested in new technology for their security screening. This is a video link system which allows security staff to remotely check and clear passengers and their baggage at the point of departure, using the latest technology to perform high-quality visual ID, security and passport checks.
Signature have been testing this for some time now and it appears to be quick and seamless – it’s not offputting to passengers, while providing a more economical staffing solution. Read more about streamlining security in private aviation.
Secondly huge improvements could be made by changing the culture of the staff at many major airport terminals. Compare grumpy BAA staff with their equivalents at a private jet terminal – both do the same job but are worlds apart in customer service levels. Of course the volumes of passengers are much lower, but private jet terminals manage to achieve the same security checks with:
- No delays
- Treating all customers as customers!
That is the winning formula – invest in technology, staff training and make security screening a service industry.
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