1. MARKETING
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ertaining to this ever-growing and evolving segment,
what are various ways in which airports can create and
deliver value to their passengers, while building closer,
more personal relationships with them?
To analyse this, #AirportMarketingX will be delving into
opportunities such as ‘crowdsourcing’, ‘crowdfunding’,
end-to-end mobile experiences and next-generation airport
retail over a series of upcoming articles.
David McMullen and Shubhodeep Pal begin by exploring the
harsh realities of the industry and suggest a number of new-age
ways in which airports can make a name for themselves as
traveller-friendly spaces. While this article seeks to broadly
outline each of these opportunities, subsequent editions will
dive deeper into each method, while offering accompanying
case-studies and best practices as well.
Waking up to a new world
The traveller today has ever more access to the Internet,
almost certainly carries a smart-device, and most likely uses
one or more social networks. Consider, that on an A380, an
average of 450 smartphones, 213 laptops and 207 tablets
can be found.
Second, airlines and airports are aware that the age
of one-way advertising is over. In fact, many have taken to
building careful multi-platform social presences that
interact with customers in various ways. Third, it is clear
that airlines have a clear lead over airports in terms of
social marketing strategy.
However, in the race to catch up, airports must not forget
that their marketing strategies need to be focused on airport
business objectives. Likewise, an airline’s success on social
media need not be aped or, indeed, envied.
Trends and challenges for the aviation industry
On February 30, 2014, SimpliFlying’s vice president of airports,
David McMullen, was invited to share the stage with senior
figures from ACI, IATA & ACAO at the Athens International
Airport ‘Airline Marketing Workshop’, to discuss the clear
recovery trend emerging in Greece, partnerships and air
service development.
One of the key questions discussed was: As the evolution of
traffic reaches an all-time high, does connectivity deliver
economic sustainability for airports? Quite clearly it does not.
IATA continues to stress the need for airlines to develop their
ancillary revenue streams and ACI states that 70% of the world’s
airports are loss-making. Whilst the industry faces even further
challenges in the form of fierce competition and even capacity
constraints, airports are in dire need to upgrade infrastructure.
The ACI-NA total estimate of airports’ capital development
needs for 2013 through 2017, adjusted for inflation is
$14.3 billion annualised. Around 54% of the development is
intended to accommodate growth in passenger and cargo
activity as well as larger aircraft; while 43% is intended to
rehabilitate existing infrastructure, maintain a state of good
repair, and keep airports up to standards for the aircraft that
use them. Customer expectations are rising by the day with
people demanding that Wi-Fi should be free.
The European Commission recently implemented new rules
covering airport subsidies, which are designed to phase out
billions in hand-outs for unprofitable airports around Europe
derived from taxpayers’ money.
The commission claims that 42% of the continent’s
440 airports currently operate at a loss, whilst existing
‘operating aid’ to these airports is described as
‘technically illegal’.
AIRPORT WORLD/APRIL-MAY 201448
AIRPORT MARKETING EXCHANGE
In this age of increased connectivity and mobility, how exactly can airports tap into the
connected travellers market?
IMPROVINGTHE
PASSENGEREXPERIENCE

2. MARKETING
Under the new rules, airports will have to submit
business plans that demonstrate a route to profitability
in order to qualify for subsidies, whilst governments will
also have permission to grant subsidies for airports to
make infrastructure investments, as long as ‘there is a
genuine transport need’ and ‘demand for it’.
Opportunities in the connected age
Although the picture above might seem grim, our
connected world is rife with opportunities. Over the last
decade – especially the last five years – the new,
connected traveller offers airports an unprecedented
source of data and a willingness to contribute to the
airport experience.
Accessible to thousands of people in his or her
virtual networks, today’s passengers also use these
networks to find recommendations, share reviews and
photographs as well as share feedback – all while
hopping between airports.
Not only do airports now have a dynamic
communication channel with passengers, they can
also understand what passengers want, like or
dislike about the airport experience. The ability
to provide real-time customer service open the doors
to winning loyalty.
More than just a function of communications, airport
marketing nowadays serves to attract passengers from
nearby competing airports. In fact, several airports
have been investing in innovative products and
service initiatives to differentiate their airport
experience in hope of becoming a preferred airport
of choice to passengers.
Consider Manchester Airport in the UK. Its extensive
#flymanchester campaign aimed to take air service
development to the next level by directly promoting
routes to a specific target market.
The purpose was to get travellers to fly Manchester
instead of neighbouring airports like Heathrow and
Gatwick. Airport marketing today has dramatically evolved.
Potential solutions
Armed with this new-found knowledge, can the airport
customer experience and service quality be improved
not only for, but also with, customers? Here are some
of the ways airports can tap into the connected
traveller market:
Crowdsourcing – This is the seeking of ideas and
opinions from a large group of people with a specific
purpose in mind. It provides airports with a great
way to engage with passengers online, invite ideas
efficiently and helps draw travellers closer to the
airport brand. Helsinki Airport’s Quality Hunters
initiative is a great example of crowdsourcing in an
airport context.
Crowdfunding – The act of seeking funding from the
public is booming in recent years. Movies, apps, games,
consumer electronics are only some of the things that
have been successfully funded by an online community
interested in benefitting from them. This could
potentially be extended to airports as well, especially in
times when funding is hard to secure.
Re-thinking airport retail – There are a number of
ways in which airport retail can be spurred: Changi
Airport, for instance, offers an online shop for its duty
free store, so travellers can simply shop, collect and fly.
Frankfurt Airport, Gatwick and Delhi Airport have had QR
code walls for passengers to do grocery shopping easily.
Given how often passengers ‘check-in’ to airports, there
is also an immense opportunity to send location-based
offers within the airport.
End-to-end travel apps – Given how integral
smartphones and tablets have become to travel, many
airports now offer travel information such as flight times
on mobile apps. Copenhagen even offers an interactive
experience of the airport terminal online.
Other airports have leveraged on Google Street
View to offer travellers a peek into their terminals.
In the future, we will see apps catering for before
and after travel. In fact, Milan’s airports already
offers an innovative ‘door-to-door travel
management app’.
In the light of the above, can airports make a name
for themselves by creating memorable travel experiences
that are shared and recommended widely by travellers
on their online networks? The answer is, yes!
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SimpliFlying is a global consulting firm that believes
in thinking differently in aviation marketing. David
McMullen is its VP for airports and Shubhodeep Pal
is VP for products and operations.
TheJune/JulyissueofAirportWorldwillfeatureaQ&Aexchangewithaseniorexecutive
fromChangiAirport,whichisconsistentlyrankedamongtheworld’sbest.
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