We’ve all been there. You’ve landed at an unfamiliar airport, your flight was 20 minutes late, and now you have to race across the terminal to catch your connecting flight. To make matters worse, you haven’t had a bite to eat this morning. You de-plane, on the hunt for something quick and easy, yet every restaurant in sight has an endless line. You face the hard facts: you need to eat something, but you also need to make your flight, so you skip the food.
We live in the age of on-demand, with companies like Lyft, Postmates and Amazon giving us what we want, when we want it. No one enjoys waiting in lines, but especially not in places like airports, wher every second truly matters. While other areas of retail have adopted new technology, from on-demand delivery to mobile orders and self-service kiosk stations, these point-of-sale (POS) systems and digital transformations have largely been absent from the place wher time is undoubtedly of the essence – airports.
Perhaps one of the reasons retail technology has yet to be more properly introduced in airport terminals is because it’s easy to overlook just how massive of a market it truly is. We’re on a mission when traveling; we’ve got to get from one place to the other, so we’re not necessarily paying close attention to what’s around us. While all of us are just trying to make it to the gate, fumbling with our heavy luggage, we represent a huge opportunity for retailers – whether we realize it or not.
LaGuardia airport in New York, for example, handled more than 28.4 million passengers (aka potential consumers) in 2015. More than 80 million are expected to travel through the Houston Airport system by 2020, and even a mid-sized airport like San Jose can see up to $10,000,000 in annual sales. These are all instances wher there is an enormous business opportunity to be had. And yet, airport terminals are notorious for overcrowding, high prices, and poor customer experiences.
Because of the long lines and high foot traffic, there’s ample room for technology to streamline the passenger experience in airport terminals. And there’s already some precedent for the impactful ways technology can disrupt this historically offline space.
For example, we’re beginning to see forward-thinking airlines deploying new technology to improve travelers’ in-flight experience. A growing number of airlines – including Air New Zealand, Norwegian, Azul and Finnair – allow passengers to order meals, snacks and drinks via the In-Flight Entertainment (IFE) system in between regular meal services. Gone are the days of selecing fro one of two dinner options, crossing your fingers, and hoping for a halfway decent, reheated meal.
JetBlue has also notably distinguished its brand as a leader in customer satisfaction, with technology playing a big role in the in-plane experience. From streamlining the pre-flight process with JetBlue’s Auto Check-In service to offering a mobile app with an array of self-service options, JetBlue prepares its passengers to better navigate delays or other disruptive events. The airline is also winning over happy customers with their in-flight technology, offering free proprietary wifi and iPad Minis for flight attendants and crew members. These iPads can facilitate in-flight purchases like snacks and goods, and accept Apple Pay. With a captive audience on their hands inclined to snack and shop to fill the time, it makes a lot of sense to facilitate a seamless path to purchase.
“We think of ourselves as a customer service company that happens to fly planes,” JetBlue CIO Eash Sundaram said in an interview with CIO.com, speaking to the airline’s reputation for innovation. “So when you think of the customer service aspect of JetBlue, it’s all about personalization and how we take care of customer needs. Technology plays such an integral role in addressing our customer needs.”
Cutting-edge technology has been implemented into airports, but these developments have mostly been focused on improving security, modernizing airport infrastructure, and providing travelers with benefits and perks.
