1. New Study and Survey on Airport 2025 – Rethinking the
Customer Experience
Rohit Talwar – CEO – Fast Future Research
November 23rd 2011
Rohit Talwar is the CEO of Fast Future Research and Project Director of the Airport 2025
study being conducted for Amadeus. In this article he explores some of the key drivers
shaping customer expectations and the commercial outlook for airports. He then discusses
the resulting critical strategic imperatives for airports to ensure they can survive and thrive in
a decade or more of economic and market turbulence.
Developing Customer Strategy in Turbulent Times
Every airport would claim to be dedicated to enhancing the service it offers to its customers
– be they passengers, airlines or those just visiting. The issue is one of determining what
enhancements to make over the next decade or more and how to finance them. Airports
around the world - like many other capital intensive businesses - are faced with an
unprecedented level of uncertainty and challenge as they try to develop these medium to
long term strategies and investment plans. A combination of key factors is adding to the
uncertainty.
Firstly, most analysts and economists now accept that the current economic turbulence,
public debt crises and market uncertainty will be with us for the next 5-10 years. The choppy
economic outlook combined with continued fuel price volatility and intense competition will
put real pressures on airline profits in both developed and developing markets alike. In the
face of profit concerns, airlines will inevitably seek to reduce landing costs and demand
higher subsidies where they can. Increasingly, we also expect airlines to press for a share of
the commercial revenues airports generate through activities such as retail, dining and
parking. At the same time, continued economic uncertainty means individual travellers may
well become more cautious in their airport spending behaviour.
A second challenge is that travellers have increasing choice as a result of more airports
coming online, expanding capacity at existing airports and growing competition from other
means of transport such as rail. Finally airport users are also becoming more demanding in
terms of the quality of the airport experience. There is a particular focus on increasing the
speed with which passengers can complete their journey from check-in through bag drop
and boarding pass checks to security, passport control and boarding. In addition, there is a
growing emphasis on consumers emphasizing experiences over the buying of more physical
goods. The issue is determining what kind of affordable experiential leisure activities airports
can develop that would have broad enough appeal to justify the investment.

2. Despite the challenges, customer insight has never been more readily and rapidly available.
Social media now provides a powerful mechanism for passengers to share their feedback,
concerns and improvement ideas. Airports have been inconsistent in their approach to
handling this rich source of customer insight.
Unintended Consequences of Innovation
A growing concern for airports is that the faster we speed the customer through the core
airport journey, the less time they need to allow between airport arrival and flight departure.
This could have a direct impact on revenues for retail and food and beverage outlets –
particularly for business travellers. Few would argue against the need for improvement. For
example, enhancements such as permanent boarding passes and baggage tags, biometrics
and automated border controls all help smooth and accelerate passenger flows through the
airport. Equally, most accept the benefits of engaging passengers through their mobile
devices and the future use of Near Field Communications to give them greater control of
their airport experience. The challenge though, is how to fund this continuous investment in
service improvement when commercial revenues may be coming under pressure from all
sides?
Rethinking the Customer Experience – Service is the Killer App
In response to the commercial issues, a clear strategic imperative is emerging for airports
around rethinking the customer experience. Key components of this experience redesign
include:
 Personalization - An emphasis on tailoring service delivery, communications, offers and
incentives according to customer needs, loyalty, travel destinations and past behaviours
 The Passenger Journey - Streamlining the core passenger processes through physical
design changes, technology enhancements, information provision and - most importantly
– staff training and development
 Customer Insight - Conducting real dialogues to reveal where else passengers
currently do their shopping, what they buy, why they buy it and how they can be
encouraged to do more of it at the airport
 Retail Proposition- Revisiting the retail mix to determine the balance between luxury,
discount, pop-up and novelty that will prove most popular to those passing through the
airport
 Enhancing the Experience - Identifying affordable leisure, dining and experiential
offerings that would encourage customers to spend more time at the airport prior to
departure
 Packaging the Offer - Smart bundling of leisure, dining and retail offers to encourage
customers to make time at the airport an integral part of the overall travel experience.
For some the transformational journey has already begun and there are tremendous
examples emerging around the world of how airports are reinventing themselves. For others,
the mists are beginning to clear and the need for a radical rethink is becoming increasingly
apparent. Although many of the changes will require technology solutions and physical
alterations to airport layouts, by far the biggest shift will be in the mindsets of those who own,
manage and operate airports. We need to give ourselves permission to focus on enhancing
the total airport experience in a customer centric manner.

3. The Airport 2025 Study and Survey
To help examine these challenges and explore the possible evolution of the passenger
experience, Amadeus has commissioned Fast Future Research to undertake the Airport
2025 study. The study analyses the key drivers of change, identifies alternative possible
airport business models and assesses future customer priorities. The results will be shared
at the Future Travel Experience Conference Asia in Kuala Lumpur - February 8th-10th 2012.
As part of the study, Fast Future is currently running a global online survey to explore how
customers would like to see the airport experience evolve over the next decade or more. The
survey can be found here http://bit.ly/rZA9u2
Fast Future will donate US$1 to the Save the Children Fund for each person that takes part
in the survey. The survey closes on December 9th 2011.
Rohit Talwar is the CEO of Fast Future Research and leads the Airport 2025 research
programme. Fast Future is a global foresight research and consulting firm that specialises in
advising firms in the aviation, transport and tourism sectors. Fast Future’s work draws on a
range of proven foresight, strategy and creative processes to help clients develop deep
insights into a changing world. The research is designed to help clients understand,
anticipate and respond to the trends, forces and ideas that could shape the competitive
landscape over the next 5-20 years.