3 Reasons Why Airport Operators Are Not Customer Oriented

All what passengers want is good service, including less delays and less lost bags. They do not care who owns or runs the airport. Though there is a lot of discussion about passenger experience there are a few reasons why airports are not customer focussed.

Here are the top three:



1. Airport Operators do not know who their customer is. There was this Airport Operator who had an executive meeting to kick-off their Balanced Scorecard process. The goal of the first workshop was to define the Balanced Scorecard. After a day's discussion they had to abort the meeting, because they could not agree on who their customer was. Airline or passenger? Or even retailer, or visitor? They all deliver revenue.

2. Airport Operators lack competition. In another post I was highlighting the fact that for local passengers there is no real competition between airports. Suppose you live and work in Zurich. Would you choose Munich or Geneva as your home airport because you encountered bad service at Zurich Airport? Not really.

3. Airport Operators do not think short-term. Airport Operators are a different species if you look at all the other stakeholders at the airport. Airlines, ground handlers, retailers, they all have to move quickly to consistently win their customers. They face high variable cost while Airport Operators are investment driven with high fix cost. Airport Operators think in master plans and capex and do not look at current customer (who is it?) needs. Not in the short term.

Refresh Rates for Visualization of Real-Time Data

What's your expectation of refresh rate for "real time" data visualization? One could argue that the refresh rate depends on the time when such real-time information is still actionable, i.e. you can still take an action to avoid an issue or to ensure an expected result. This goes beyond traditional dashboards which are being refreshed in intervals. You will have to be notified immediately when something goes wrong or when something did not happen in due time.

That may be a reason why the demand for refresh rates ranges from zero latency to hourly refresh. I would aim for zero latency. Because, as a user, I do not want to ask myself whether this information is up to date. Nor will I want to know when it is being refreshed. In a real-time / operational environment it must be up to date.