MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS
Market appeal How do you create an innovative brand experience for growing airports? Big Vision’s founder and CEO, Joe Quinn, provides some thoughts and reflects on the successful rebranding of Orlando Sanford International Airport.
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ailed as the safest way to travel, aviation continues to grow with ACI World expecting global passenger numbers to double by 2034 and exceed 20.9 billion by 2040. With market demand forecasted to increase, primary and secondary airports worldwide have an opportunity to increase their market share by keeping pace with industry trends.
Branding Singapore Changi (SIN), Incheon (ICN), Indianapolis (IND), Delhi-Indira Gandhi (DEL), Toronto Pearson (YYZ), Mumbai-Chhatrapati Shivaji (BOM), Dubai (DXB) and Doha (DOH) are just a few of the airports that are traditionally ranked by passengers as among the best airports in the world in ACI’s Airport Service Quality (ASQ) customer excellence programme. One thing many of these award-winning airports have in common is a strong brand. Indeed, Doha’s Hamad International Airport enjoyed a two-year partnership with a brand consultancy before releasing its new brand and revamped website to the world in 2014. A year later it was a top five airport in ACI’s ASQ survey. While Dubai Airports recently launched an exciting new brand for DXB, which it believes reflects the company’s transition from airport operator to a consumer led firm “committed to making the world’s busiest international airport, the world’s best”. While these are major airports processing tens of millions of passengers a year, there are still lessons to be learned for regional airports. Between the digital and physical experiences these major airports provide, they have effectively become a destination in their own right. This has arguably never been more important, as with a growing number of flight options to choose from, passengers are starting to pick flights based on the destination airport. In other words, brand loyalty makes a difference. If regional airports want to compete for market share by stealing budget-conscious passengers from major airports, they need to accelerate their branding efforts.
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AIRPORT WORLD/ISSUE 5, 2019
User experience Airports build loyalty by providing for their passengers’ needs and wants. Many focus on the physical experience, modernising terminals and streamlining security checks, but the digital experience makes airports memorable as well. Between the lines, tight schedules, and cost, air travel can be stressful. Passengers need key information like directions, departure times, and flight status at their fingertips. By providing these features on a mobile responsive website, airports can optimise user experience (UX) and foster brand loyalty. With a simple and fresh design, the London Luton Airport website provides a mobile-friendly, customised user experience. To help passengers get to and from LLA, the website uses a decision tree with friendly questions to funnel travellers to the answers they are seeking.
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) website compliance In the US, in 2018, there were 2,285 ADA website lawsuits filed in US federal courts, a 181% increase from 2017. As the risk of lawsuits increases for all businesses, airport websites need to be made ADA compliant. Spurred on by these lawsuits, accessibility has become a critical element of a website’s user experience. The goal of UX design should be to make a website accessible to anyone, disabled or not, regardless of their hardware, software, language, location or ability. By incorporating ADA standards into their website code, airports can provide an improved user experience for everyone and avoid potential lawsuits.
ULCC model Ultra Low Cost Carriers (ULCCs) like Allegiant, Frontier and Spirit constitute roughly 12% of US airline departing seats. This represents an approximate 5% growth in ULCC air travel from mid-2018. The ULCC model makes flying more affordable and, therefore, competes with users’ discretionary spending. Allegiant’s model,