Comments for Airport Business

Comment on European Commission proposes revised Air Passenger Rights regulations by Smith

Smith — Sat, 27 Apr 2013 18:28:06 +0000

Tesco, one of the world’s largest and most successful retailers has just announced that they will reduce investment in physical stores and add more investment to online retail, because this is what their customers want. They have also created airport pre-order online kiosks.

Meanwhile Airports, who are transport operators and not expert retailers, for some reason think that they can “buck the trend” and persuade the growing trend of online consumers that they want to shop in the old modus operandi and not the new, online version.

It was this failure to grasp the future that caused the demise of the music publishing industry, camera film manufacturers, record retailers and video cassette hire operations… not to mention travel agents, insurance brokers and many more.

Adjust or collapse… the choise is yours!

Comment on One bag rule severely impacting retail revenues by Mark Scott

Mark Scott — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 17:44:30 +0000

Duty Free or otherwise it is about purchasing products. When to buy is not necessarily that important if you can’t consume the commodities enroute. No one really wants to carry on and then off again – including the airlines.

The vested interest is the stores on departure who have fought long and hard to get the concessions so want all passengers to buy before they fly. In most cases the passengers return to the same airport so could buy on the way back – only the goods are not as keenly priced as those found at a supermarket(or high street retail outlet) and can be loaded straight into the car with all the other shopping.

Buying on arrival makes sense for all parties except the shops at departure who occupy the airport like wallet raiding parties. The only difficulty is that another shop needs to be established in the ingoing channel rather than outgoing.

Both direction businesses can be enhanced by specific offers dynamically inserted into the travellers’ documents as Securidox can do.

Comment on Embracing automation to enhance customer service by ANIL KUMAR KOHLI

ANIL KUMAR KOHLI — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 12:52:48 +0000

I HAVE TAKEN NOTICE OF YOUR EFFORTS IN REVAMPING IT OPERATIONS ON SMARTPHONE BASED APPLICATIONS AT MIDDLE EAST BASED INTERNATIONAL AIRPORTS.I HAVE BEEN AWARE OF YOUR IT CAPABILITIES IN BUILDING AIRPORT INFRASTRUCTURE FOR OVER 20 YEARS, STRANGELY ENOUGH YOU HAVE HAD NO PRESENCE IN INDIAN MARKET PLACE. CAN YOU IMPLEMENT INTEGRATED TICKETING SYSTEMS FOR AIRLINES IN INDIA.

Comment on ASQ: Benchmarking passenger satisfaction by debbie smith

debbie smith — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 18:00:14 +0000

Satisfaction alone is not a sufficient metric to determine quality of service–in fact there is evidence that satisfaction is only part of the “story”. Many marketers learned years ago that it is possible to have “satisfied” customers and still loose market share! Other factors such as likelihood to recommend the airport, intension to plan travel through that airport in the future (repurchase) and other factors constituting value, can be as, if not more important in how travelers will choose to spend their travel dollars.

Comment on ASQ: Benchmarking passenger satisfaction by David-mj

David-mj — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 08:58:30 +0000

While I have yet to become a respondent to an ASQ survey, I believe it’s a good idea to make passenger satisfaction the benchmark of an efficient airport. I hope more airports undertake these surveys, not only so they can evaluate where they stand with other airports, but also so that they can gather feedback from their passengers, who are the core of their service.

Comment on EC Vice President Kallas commends Airport Carbon Accreditation by Roshan Lal

Roshan Lal — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 14:55:56 +0000

Dear Mr Kallas,
I read your views in tackling CO2 emission level & make environment user friendly.
Let me share my personal experience in tackling this issue while I was Head at 3 international airports in India.Being a Chairman/ Convener of Airfield Environment Management Committee,all efforts were made to improve overall hygiene and cleanliness standards while reducing CO2 levels ,but somewhere due to political interferences & other reasons I was not much successful in reaching near ICAO norms/standards.
May I reach you with a request to frame simple DOs & DON’Ts which can be tabulated to make a ready reckoner for airport management to read/study & implement at their airport.

Something a simple but assertive action will go a long way to tackle this issue by the airports.

Thanx & regards,
Roshan Lal

Comment on Schiphol innovating to ensure sustainable growth by Roshan Lal

Roshan Lal — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 17:42:21 +0000

In my country i.e. India,I was Head of three international airports & Cargo Department till 2006 when I got superannuated from my organization.

During my tenure as Airport Director,I learnt that my organization i.e. Airports Authority of India ( AAI ),a central Govt.Public Sector Undertaking has devised a plan to upgrade 12 international airports,8 custom airports,23 civil enclaves and 81 domestic airports ( Total-124 airports ).We all were wondering where will we get pax load / cargo load and airport operators to run these airports on profit????

Let me tell you ,all greenfield airports are running to their full capacity,metro airports have picked up good traffic both in pax load & cargo load.And airports are doing pretty good business.

It only confirms my thinking that if you provide good infrastructure at the airports,it is definite that business will be picked up in due course of time.And if you don’t provide essentials at the airports,they will pack up sooner or later.

Comment on LAGs restrictions removal – too much, too soon? by Smith

Smith — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 19:34:17 +0000

Even if the LAGS security issues are resolved in time, who is going to properly inform the consumer as to what he can carry and where? Let us assume that an EU airport permits an outbound EU traveller to carry is duty-free liquids (or any liquids) to a a non EU destination. What is going to happen when a non EU airport security guard says “we don’t care what the EU says, you cannot carry these liquids through in transit”? Allowing travellers to carry LAGS, which may subsequently be confiscated at another (non EU) location is likely to be a bigger threat to sales than the current restrictions as the consumer backlash could be huge and the media will love to jump on this issue.

Comment on One bag rule severely impacting retail revenues by Gerg

Gerg — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 20:25:27 +0000

This “arrival shop” talk is nonsense. People often want to buy something from the country they depart, not from the country they arrive at. Most local goods of the departure airport will not be on sale on arrival.

Comment on One bag rule severely impacting retail revenues by Smith

Smith — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 20:52:07 +0000

This is a quotation easily found on google when searching “arrivals duty free” …. it is a quote from an ACI North America website dated Feb 2008. Why can there be one such assertion on one side of the Atlantic and a completely diverse view from the other? In fact, no regulations need to be changed in The EU for the reasons stated above, so why can Europe not embrace the change that it likely to come across the pond?

“Arrivals Duty Free represents a unique win-win opportunity for the federal government to help Canadian duty free operators and their” …Ottawa Feb 7th.

“Arrivals Duty Free represents a unique win-win opportunity for the federal government to help Canadian duty free operators and their airport hosts while also increasing federal tax revenue,” said CAC President and CEO Jim Facette”

Comment on Airport parking – harnessing the internet to drive revenues by think Inverness Airport Parking

think Inverness Airport Parking — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 09:38:58 +0000

High variation in parking charge found in UK parking. I don’t know why this happens so. Inverness Airport Parking is much better than all these parkings and is ideal for short stays and long stays. You can save up to 60% of your expense here Take advantage of this

Comment on One bag rule severely impacting retail revenues by Steve

Steve — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 15:58:26 +0000

Couldn’t agree more – there is general confusion surrouding “one bag”, and many are just not buying. Close on 70% of the questions put into us are on “limits allowed on departure” and “why am I not allowed to buy it when I arrive.”

Comment on One bag rule severely impacting retail revenues by Slaney

Slaney — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 14:55:38 +0000

It makes perfect sense (particularly for the passenger who never gets asked) to device a “facility” for customers to pick up their goods (duty free or duty paid) on ARRIVAL thus helping the customer (hauling the goods around with them), the airline (flammable liquor on board and the cost of flying the weight of the duty free goods) and the airport authority (revenue earner for arrival shops)….. it is only the incumbent cartel of duty free owners who do not wish to look into this scenario! What out boys…. your D-Day is fast arriving!

Comment on One bag rule severely impacting retail revenues by Smith

Smith — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 08:53:58 +0000

Sales made outbound from airports within the EU for intra EU travellers are not duty-free at all and for this reason there is no legal reason why these sales need to be made outbound and carried on board for “export”. The business is conducted in this manner due to tradition only. LCC’s who dominate the EU traffic make huge ancillary revenues from baggage and also they like on-board carry on restrictions as it improves the turn round/boarding time of aircraft. Perhaps airlines, retailers and airports should think creatively to not only generate more sales, but to overcome these problems with on the ground delivery and pre-order, rather than create rules to protect a practice which is not really necessary due to the lack of requirement for the exportation of EU purchased goods.

Many EU retailers are already opening “arrivals” shops in baggage halls of EU airports, WDF have lead the way in The UK and Spain is now following this example, as are other airports.

Much as this is a radical way forward, it does provide a solution to this impasse as it overcomes many negatives such as security, LAGS, convenience and weight. Furthermore, the customer should be king…..what would they like?

Comment on Exploring the airport of 2030 by Techmaster

Techmaster — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 21:08:13 +0000

Great article!

Comment on Rutten of the Schiphol Group becomes President of ACI EUROPE by Reflecting on ACI World meeting « Airport Check-In

Reflecting on ACI World meeting « Airport Check-In — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:57:14 +0000

[...] presenters included Catherine Mayer of SITA (someone with more energy than any two other people), Ad Rutten of Amsterdam and also the CEO of Abu Dhabi Airport, John [...]

Comment on Rutten of the Schiphol Group becomes President of ACI EUROPE by Defining the airport-airline relationship « Airport Check-In

Defining the airport-airline relationship « Airport Check-In — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 15:44:46 +0000

[...] Ad Rutten from Amsterdam talked about how they built a terminal to meet the stated needs of a specific low cost carrier. But passengers hated it and started booking away; it was also increasing costs in other less visible ways. The airline missed the forest for the trees. [...]

Comment on Making RFID work – the most effective solution to lost baggage? by Paul Chartier

Paul Chartier — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 11:19:11 +0000

I was surprised to see the statement from IATA that there are many choices with RFID for baggage handling. In December 2005 IATA published its RP 1740C standard that specifies the air protocol, data set, and encoding rules for RFID for baggage handling. This was absolutely essential to achieve the interoperability for transfer baggage.

The Baggage Improvement Programme is a next step towards implementation. The work by ODIN (see other comments) is about conformance of the technology. We have software products – used by IATA – for the conformance of the data, see http://www.convergent-software.co.uk/BaggageHandling.htm

Comment on Making RFID work – the most effective solution to lost baggage? by Patrick Sweeney

Patrick Sweeney — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 16:54:09 +0000

IATA put out a global tender and hired ODIN technologies (http://odintechnologies.com/solutions/aerospace-rfid) to perform a detailed scientific study for quality and performance optimization on baggage tracking. The study is available to all IATA members. RFID baggage systems can also be part of a certified green system as they are the first step in reducing the vast baggage tags printed on paper.

Comment on BAA remains industrious despite order to sell three airports by mr b burns

mr b burns — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 21:24:12 +0000

I think that it would be a good idea to sell Glasgow Airport in Paisley scotland because it would help Glasgow Airport alot with tourist passing through the Airport and it mite atract more plane companys flying from Glasgow Airport to all around the world and it may bring more tourist in to the area and scotland as a whole and it mite bring new jobs into the area wich is badly needed.