Up until January 2020, the expansion of air travel seemed inevitable. The number of people who travel by air has significantly increased over the past ten years. Predictions suggested that the number of passengers would keep rising, but this has altered since the Covid-19 pandemic. One of the main issues airports were dealing with prior to the pandemic was how to move individuals through airport terminals as proficiently as possible. It is anticipated to resurface once the global market and travel, both for corporate and pleasure, have recovered. A long-term solution is required to ensure that airports can maximize their financial potential while providing their customers with the best service possible in light of the increment in passage percentages.
Problem
The airport facilities that endorse mobility have so far needed to be faster to conform as the proportion of people flying around the world has grown over time. Worldwide, several airports represent the public, most of which were created and constructed in the 20th millennium (Lohmann & Trischler, 2017). The potential of the airports was constrained at this time due to the slight expansion of air traffic. The multitude of passengers also transiting significantly increased when neoliberalism took off in the 2000s and applied to local and international travel markets. The number of airlines serving different passenger types has increased in direct proportion to passenger growth. The percentage of plane mobility in an airport on any specified day has increased. These elements caused more slowdowns as airlines and travelers tried to shift from one place to another.
Furthermore, airports need help to balance providing effective services and the potential for economic gain. Airports must complement the degree of safety they provide by allowing efficient security solutions to screen every passenger and ensure everyone’s safety. They must also consider economic factors, like having sufficient available duty-free stores, which can aid the airport produce much-needed revenue and improve its allure. Lastly, amenities like check-in, airline seating areas, and cafes can also influence how travelers will move around the airport. Airports must balance and consider several factors, including maintaining the proper flow of traffic, adhering to all safety rules, and enhancing customer satisfaction.
Failed Concepts
The idea of designing airports with little to no interaction with others, including employees, to provide all the facilities is among the failed concepts. These facilities for public airports have been confirmed to be impractical, despite this concept having been implemented on local levels, such as personal airlines where corporate jets are utilized. Although technology makes some tasks more straightforward, it is noteworthy that several passengers need clarification on it, making things more complicated (Ryu & Park, 2019). While still enabling other individuals to work and assist in guiding commuters anytime they consider taking flights from one location to another, and innovation should be kept to a few tasks.
The Solutions, Rationale, and Expected Outcomes
The first step in managing passenger flow is to lay out the airports effectively for regular usage. To ensure that they adhere to the most recent safety requirements, inspecting the quality of the infrastructure and airport terminals built throughout the nation is essential. The designs need to consider the airport’s potential and the travelers’ safety. The capacity of security services to screen commuters for multiple security dangers and determine their risk on different flights is essential.
The second factor to consider is whether airport designs are very user-friendly. It is a determinant that can be attained in several ways. The first involves drastically reducing the length a passenger must stroll before boarding their aircraft. Passengers are affected by it, and several whines about walking for miles in the airport. Lengthy walks at the airport are a hassle for travelers needing to change flights. In order to board another plane as they venture to different destinations, travelers frequently have to relocate from one edge of the runway to the other.
Moreover, the provision of amenities is another crucial attribute of airports. The presence of amenities like resorts and rest areas is a requirement for airports. When seeking to link with airlines widely spaced apart, passengers utilize these amenities even more frequently than when simply waiting for a flight (Blichfeldt et al., 2017). Passengers find airports more soothing and pleasurable when additional amenities like restaurants exist. In order to be used at all hours of the day, restrooms must be built to be as available as possible and uphold the rigorous quality of hygienic practices.
Infrastructure spending can also be significant for the airport’s growth. These investments ought to be used to construct new terminals with cutting-edge architecture, as this will help solve many current issues. The construction of larger airports and airplane runways can also aid expand the number of planes an airport can manage, which also enables less overcrowding of smaller aircraft that work with airlines (Blichfeldt et al., 2017). Such factors are crucial in facilitating an airport to provide services more effectively and efficiently.
Consequently, the aviation industry should increase the size of its aircraft, which will reduce the number of times passengers must queue at airports, which typically causes congestion. An imbalance between the supply and demand for airline assets frequently brings on airport overcrowding. Demand management practices guarantee efficient and cost-effective utilization of the current facilities, which delays the necessity for airport expansion even though they cannot assure the expansion of the airport’s potential (Dixit & Jakhar, 2021). In order to control demand at airlines and ease congestion, most of the airline sector employs peak and off-peak valuation techniques. By forcing travelers to use alternative airports, taxing comparatively high rates throughout peak hours will ease congestion (Bacinskas & Kempers, 2020). Comparatively tiny gates and motion detectors have been added to Dubai International Airport to monitor and quantify queue durations, cutting down on commuter wait times.
In addition, airports can significantly improve their efficacy by adopting technology. The airport’s utilization of automatic person movers can significantly shorten the time it takes for people to shift from one location to another. When utilizing the infrastructure, the automatic individual movers speed up the mobility of persons and increase user gratification (Bacinskas & Kempers, 2020). Technology like self-check-in for air carriers lessens the zones where customers must stand in line and interact with other people. These and other innovations significantly boost service effectiveness and elevate general customer experience over time.
Conclusion
A long-term solution to the rise in passenger volume is required to ensure that airports can satisfy their economic viability while providing the highest level of customer service. It is anticipated that air travel will grow even more in the upcoming years. It is sensible to anticipate an expansion of air transportation once the Covid-19 global epidemic has been effectively contained, which will bring back the previous issues. By making improvements to our airports’ facilities and technology, we can boost their efficiency. Adopting these innovations will provide airports with significant economic and social advantages. It stands to reason to have more airlines increase their dependability over time.
References
Bacinskas, J., & Kempers, V. (2020). Effects of new technologies on customer satisfaction: A study on how new customer-facing technologies in airports affect customer satisfaction [Master’s thesis, Jonkoping University]. DiVA.
Blichfeldt, B. S., Pumputis, A., & Ebba, K. (2017). Using, spending, wasting and killing time in airports. International Journal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research. Web.
Dixit, A., & Jakhar, S. K. (2021). Airport capacity management: A review and bibliometric analysis. Journal of Air Transport Management, 91, 102010.
Lohmann, G., & Trischler, J. (2017). Licence to build, licence to charge? Market power, pricing and the financing of airport infrastructure development in Australia. Transport Policy, 59, 28-37. Web.
Ryu, Y. K., & Park, J. W. (2019). Investigating the effect of experience in an airport on pleasure, satisfaction, and airport image: A case study on incheon international airport. Sustainability, 11(17), 4616. Web.