How are passengers moving around your airport? A full understanding only comes from analyzing every aspect of the passenger journey – from parking to duty-free.

It’s widely accepted that a happy passenger will spend more money in an airport. And the more relaxed a passenger is, the happier they are, which puts the top three passenger concerns into context: standing in line at check-in, queuing at security, and waiting to board. It’s this anxiety about catching the flight that stops passengers from relaxing and enjoying the retail experience provided by airports.

Zürich Airport, named in the world’s top ten airport shopping experiences by Skytrax, operates one of the biggest retail platforms in Switzerland. Serving a record 26.28 million passengers in 2015, it continues to show a steady increase in retail revenue, which accounted for just under 40% of all airport revenue in that year. That percentage is indicative of global airport non-aeronautical revenues, which reached US$58bn in 2016.

Zürich’s landside retail space is even tempting enough to entice non-passenger shoppers into the airport, but one of the big challenges it faces, like many other airports, is the prevalence of queues during peak time.

Softening the impact of disruptionPassengers are craving retail experiences, but if a passenger is stuck in line or stressed about time, they aren’t shopping or eating. Investing in passenger f low improvements that remove obstacles makes commercial sense. Disruption can’t be avoided altogether, but taking measures such as redirecting people and targeting problematic areas with extra staff can moderate its impact. Airports are recognizing this opportunity; 59% say that making passengers happy is their most important driver for investment.

“At every airport in North America, the passenger experience is in the top five strategic initiatives,” says Faith Varwig from airport planning firm Faith Group. The Holy Grail is the end-to-end passenger experience that starts at the time a passenger leaves their home and

“At every airport in North America, the passenger experience is in the top

five strategic initiatives.”

Case study

The pursuit of happiness

From Cape Town to Buenos Aires, airports are increasingly looking to non-aeronautical revenue streams for income. The move

away from a reliance on traditional airline fees means placing greater emphasis on retail. But are airports doing enough to make sure

passengers are in the right mood to shop?

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ends when they board the aircraft. Airports are asking how they can enhance that journey by reducing stress and improving the flow. But that doesn’t always meld with the goals and objectives of security.

Steady retail growth continuesThe airport retail market is strong – with duty-free sales up. At Zürich Airport, Dufry runs 35 shops covering 7,000 square meters of retail space across departures and arrivals. Dufry, which has duty-free and retail operations in 63 countries across the globe, recently posted growth acceleration of 7.2%. It attributed this increase, in part, to the continued rise in passenger numbers, and it predicts this trend will show no signs of slowing. This confidence has led to an investment in the refurbishment and expansion of retail spaces across its portfolio. It plans to launch next-generation duty-free stores in Heathrow Terminal 3, Zürich, Melbourne, Cancún, and Madrid – all of which are already in progress.

Building a barrier-free future So, what innovations are on the horizon? Single-token passenger processing is one of the major developments that will help passengers move through the airport more quickly. The concept involves capturing passenger biometrics and travel details in a single digital record. The passenger will then be able to use this token as identification at every step, vastly speeding

up their journey. There will be no need to constantly show IDs and passports, and there will be no need for a boarding pass. All that will be required is a face or a fingerprint.

For now, as terminals become more sophisticated, with fast-food outlets and magazine kiosks making way for specialty restaurants and luxury boutiques, airports should take steps to further understand their entire ecosystem. “Airports need to start thinking like businesses and identifying clear key performance indicators, because passengers are willing to pay a lot of money for an experience,” says Varwig, “What I see is people willing to pay good money for good service and I think the security systems are going to be reinvented at the airport to support that. It’s going to be a whole business process change for US airports over the next five years.”

Video is offering a fresh retail perspectiveEvery airport knows how passengers move through its facility in a purely directional sense, but few understand the full picture of the areas where passengers dwell, stop, or bypass entirely.

It’s a big issue with a seemingly simple solution. Every day, airport security systems are capturing invaluable data that could be used to bring forth new insights, streamline operations, and transform the passenger experience.

By tapping into the potential of video, airports can pinpoint hindrances to the flow of passengers and identify where queues are building up in areas like duty-free. Genetec Airport Sense is an analytics solution that helps airports gain a clearer understanding of their environments, so they can use insights to make operational improvements, and give passengers enhanced experiences.

As airport terminals become more sophisticated, traditional food outlets and magazine kiosks are replaced with upmarket cafés and luxury boutiques.

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