Airports, technology and the post-pandemic customer experience

As the commercial world gradually starts to reopen, the aviation sector has to consider how it will adapt to a post-pandemic landscape. This includes meeting travellers’ demands for cleanliness and safety without adding too much time to their journeys and enabling more flexible service provision. According to recent analysis, technology will be critical if airline operators are to meet both of these objectives.

One of the first impacts of the spread of Covid-19 in Italy was blocking the movement of people, both within and beyond national borders. A series of lockdowns have substantially reduced the supply of, and demand for, passenger transport services.

The aviation sector was one of the most impacted. According to analysis by the Airport Council International (ACI), 1.4 billion fewer passengers passed through European airports in 2020 than pre-pandemic estimates, with a decrease of 57% when compared with the data of the previous year.

This reduction has had significant economic implications for airports that typically derive their revenues from aviation-related activities, such as flying, and non-aviation activities such as commercial services for passengers. Both have been drastically affected by the pandemic. According to the ACI, European airports recorded an aggregated loss of $37.1bn in 2020, a decrease of 62.6% compared to initial forecasts.

A future full of challenges is waiting for airports and all the operators that revolve around them. The decline in passenger volumes in recent months remains partly linked to governments’ imposition of flight restrictions to limit the spread of the virus. These same governments are now considering the most effective ways in which airports will be able to return to full operation and manage the ‘new normal’.

Deloitte’s Global State of the Consumer Tracker, a tool that monitors consumer sentiment in 15 countries, reported at the end of July 2021 that, despite the security measures implemented and the Green Pass obligation, only 39% of Italians felt safe to fly. The percentage was higher (53%) among the youngest travellers (18-34 years), while it dropped to 29% among the over-55 age group – the most affected by the virus.

Italians also declared themselves more likely to choose domestic flights (28%) rather than international flights (20%). In general, there is a strong attention to health and safety: 48% showed concern for their health and 55% said they were worried about the wellbeing of their families. Despite the progress made in the fight against the Covid-19 virus, these percentages are very similar to those recorded a year ago (respectively 44% and 58%).

The Italian results show some deviations when compared with other European countries. Almost half (48%) of French citizens felt safe to fly, without substantial preferences for national or international flights. Spaniards, Belgians and the Dutch are positioned on percentages similar to those of Italy, while Germans (29%) and Brits (30%) were even less likely to choose a flight as their mode of travel.

In light of this data, it is essential for the aviation sector to rethink the travel experience, to allow passengers to face the prospect of returning to travel with greater serenity and safety. Airports need to revise the way they have traditionally welcomed, managed and processed travellers, adapting their structures to new expectations and new needs.

Recent analysis from Deloitte Italy looked at how a number of sectors should respond to the post-pandemic landscape, including the aviation sector. The From Now On report looked at three key aspects – traveler satisfaction, the self-service model, and flexible service provision.

Traveler satisfaction was previously predicated on the speed of procedures, but safety and cleanliness constitute a new paradigm. Technology will be a fundamental support in helping airports to operate in the most efficient and effective way possible. Thermoscanners, room-sanitation systems, dynamic signage in the gate area, flight information display systems, dynamic displays, displays in bathrooms and mobile apps that use location data will help airports provide a safe and hygienic environment, increasing the sense of safety among passengers.

To personalise the passenger experience, increase speed and efficiency, and reduce the need for staff, the self-service model has been widely adopted. However, any self-service device requires physical contact and in a post-Covid era, where the concern of infectious disease remains, this will represent an obstacle to its use.

A possible short-term solution is the use of assistive technologies, long used to support passengers with disabilities, which can integrate vocal assistant functions with existing touchscreens. In the long term, however, airport touchpoints will have to be rethought from a contactless perspective, taking advantage of multimodal biometric technologies, already partially introduced in the last 20 years for anti-terrorism purposes.

Finally, the ability to provide services in a flexible way will be crucial for the recovery of the aviation sector, and this will not be possible without sharing. Airports alone cannot develop recovery plans that meet all the needs of their customers, since they are heavily dependent on their stakeholders for sharing information on the state of reopening, flight volumes, segments of needs of specific passengers, as well as for the implementation of new technologies and processes. Implementing a collaborative decision-making model will be therefore crucial.