Improving Airport Operations with Data Sharing
Sharing is caring. That was the message conveyed by operations specialists from some of the world’s biggest airports during a recent webinar collaboration between Airports Council International (ACI) and Xovis.
Gathered to discuss how data sharing and informing passengers about wait times can improve airport operations, representatives from Istanbul Airport (IST), Minneapolis-St Paul International Airport (MSP), Aeroporti di Roma (FCO), Aeropuertos Uruguay (MVD), ACI, and Xovis explored the different dimensions of this urgent topic.
Stakeholder Performance and Alignment
“Sharing is caring. Whatever you measure you need to share with others so they can manage their part of the airport ecosystem,” Florian Eggenschwiler, Chief Product Officer at Xovis, said.
Using data to improve the performance of different terminal processes was the main theme of the highly attended webinar, where airport participants spoke about achieving a Level of Service (LoS) and the benefits of using accurate, objective data to improve trust and alignment among internal and external stakeholders.
Using Service Level Agreements (SLAs) to promote performance goals of processes managed by external providers is a growing trend in the aviation industry. It’s also a great way to meet LoS targets and streamline reporting and reviews, but only if the data quality is not questionable.
Reliable and transparent data can move performance reviews from an emotional, subjective approach to fact-based decision-making. “We’ve seen numerous examples where airports have been able with other stakeholders to improve relationships, improve performance by working step-by-step on this data-driven approach,” Eggenschwiler confirmed.
Optimizing Airport Operations
“All stakeholders need to think the same KPIs. Not only the same syntax, but also the same semantics. They need to be aware of what the KPIs mean, and which are the related procedures they can put in place to make some action to prevent disruptions,” Piero Terlizzi, IT Director for Aeroporti di Roma said about what needs to be done to head off disruptions.
Sharing data is important, but ensuring the different users on the same page in terms of what the data means is essential for using real-time data to improve operations.
“The key is here trying to make sure that demand that the passengers are looking for that the airport can provide with the capacity along with the level of service with a high predictability,” İsmail Hakkı Polat, Chief Planning Officer for Istanbul Airport, said. Better understanding passenger demands is an important tool for airports planning their own capacity and resource allocation," the executive commented.
When demand-capacity balance becomes imbalanced, airports end up with costly delays. Those delays have a ripple effect that can generate operational inefficiencies within a broad radius of influence. Airports using accurate historical data to optimize capacity planning can obtain a deeper understanding of passenger peaks and valleys. Over time, predictability increases as the costs of inefficiencies decline.
Federico Cabrera, Operations and Customer Experience Manager for Aeropuertos Uruguay, said that informing passengers about wait times was “crucial” to improving the efficiency of processes associated with long queues.
“Passengers are much more demanding. They are expecting an efficient airport, good communication, real-time communication from the airport,” Cabrera said.
Passenger Decision-Making
Delivering great passenger experiences is the goal of all hospitality-minded airports. But what constitutes a great experience varies among traveler types.
The occasional holiday traveler has different expectations than a seasoned business traveler. Both are undoubtedly unified in their aversion to long wait times at different terminal touchpoints. That’s why airports must have robust, automated solutions that allow them to accurately track the many different traveler types and quickly respond to the unique challenges that affect each.
Chris Marquardt, Director IT Systems for Minneapolis-St Paul International Airport, explained how wait times are differentiated for staff responsible for different traveler types. “The physical layout of our airport has security checkpoints at different ends. It might be that the general lanes at opposite ends are equal, but it could be that Clear, first class, premium, whatever those are differing. We literally have folks walking and talking with passengers, saying ‘two-minute walk to the other side, there’ll be a faster experience for you.’”
For some travelers, two minutes may not seem like much. But the difference for other passenger types may be what separates optimal and sub-optimal performance.
“Airports, airlines, we are all measuring performance of the queuing time, waiting time, the service we provide to our passengers, and we are all aiming to provide the best,” Hakki said. The reasons for that may differ—with some airlines pursuing a revenue-generation strategy and others interested in attracting more routes—but using accurate, real-time data is almost universally accepted as the best way to enhance passengers’ terminal experience.
Tags: | airport | webinar | wait times | customer experience | travel patterns |