Flying is no longer a pleasant way to travel. It is
stressful and time consuming.
To cater to travelers’ expectations, airports and
airlines need to change their way of running according to a report from CAP
Strategic Research, an aviation research and consultancy company. Below are
some innovations that could be implemented by 2025. Key points from this report
have been summed up in an article from CNNgo (a blog from the American TV
Channel CNN), which aims at providing the latest trends in travel. The content
of the article may be relevant in order to understand the impact of IT
improvements on our travel habits and to get a better picture on the airport of
the future.
© Istock Photo |
Self-check-in will be generalized. Some airlines already propose their travelers to
check-in at home or at the airport on specific machines (American Airlines,
Easy Jet), Ryan Air even charges travelers who want to check in at the airport
desk. By 2025, check-in desks are doomed to disappear.
Em/Immigration procedures will be
made easier. In 2025, we
can imagine no more queues at the immigration desk to check identity with
travelers just swiping their ID or biometric passport. Some passes that already
enable this (INSPASS in the USA or Iris Recognition Immigration System at
Heathrow Airport) will be generalized to more locations.
Frequent travelers will be able
to cut security queues.
Travelers approved by police, security forces or government departments will be
given a biometric pass allowing them to undergo security checking.
Only carry-on luggage may be
authorized. A ban on check-in
luggage may be inevitable to reduce the space, the weight and thus the costs
(fuel and staff to handle luggage). Besides, it will speed up boarding. Passengers
will be therefore encouraged to carry on their luggage on board and bigger
luggage will be transported by cargo.
© Getty Images |
Boarding will be quicker. Airlines experiment several ways to get travelers on
board using science to time the most efficient one.
Showrooms will replace shops. The idea is to replace physical shopping by online
shopping. Shops will be replaced by showrooms where travelers could test the
products and then buy them online and be delivered at home.
Airports will run all night long. The increasing number of travelers and the new
aircrafts such as A380 which are much less noisy may drive the governments to
accept the airports to run 24 hours a day.
Some of these changes may be beneficial for both
passengers and airlines companies. The new experiments made on boarding
procedure, the disappearance of physical check-in desks and the quickening
custom procedures will allow significant reduction in time spent in the
airport. Moreover, the development of online shopping, home-delivery and other
“do-it-at-home” procedures will avoid carrying on too many souvenirs in the
plane and paying extra charges for passengers. Some innovations also represent
consequent cost reduction for airlines that could be reflected in flight fares.
However, online procedures and automation of tasks may
lead to a non-personalized service. Having the possibility to communicate with
staff may be reassuring for some passengers when taking the plane; therefore,
airlines should also focus on maintaining physical contact with their
customers. Moreover, some of the above-mentioned changes may be inconvenient
and also present dangerous threats: shipping luggage via cargo may create important
delays between passengers’ arrival and luggage arrival. Thus, creating a
special category of frequent flyers that over pass security control may
represent an open door for the transport of weapons, terrorist attacks and/or
bombing!
Please feel free to post any comment. We will be glad
to share our ideas with you!
Key words: Airport, Innovations, Airlines, Check-in,
Boarding, Security queues, Carry-on luggage, Showrooms, Immigration procedures.
CNNGo. (2011, December 14). 'Airport of the future'
to make flying fun again. Retrieved January 17, 2011, from CNNGo:
http://www.cnngo.com/explorations/life/airport-future-make-flying-fun-again-164787
No comments:
Post a Comment