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ASIA-PACIFIC AIRPORTS MAGAZINE
SPECIAL REPORT: PASSENGER FACILITATION
Touchless travel Airports are leaders in the use of new technology, which will make touchless travel possible and hasten aviation’s recovery from COVID-19, writes Collins Aerospace’s Tony Chapman.
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here was a time not long ago when commercial airline passengers arrived early at airports to shop at high-end boutiques, eat at nice restaurants and enjoy a cocktail before their flights. Indeed, the airport visit was often viewed as the start of an adventure and passengers looked forward to these pre-departure activities as a fun and relaxing way to begin their journeys. ACI World’s recently released Airport Economics 2020 Report, notes that retail concessions remain the biggest source of non-aeronautical revenue for airports, accounting for 28.9% of all non-aviation related income in 2018. That was then. This is now. COVID-19 has changed our world.
TOUGH TIMES AHEAD
ACI Asia-Pacific has announced that it expects the region’s airports to lose two billion passengers and close to $40 billion in revenue in 2020. While no one has a crystal ball, what is crystal clear is that the global airport industry will continue to struggle until APA Issue 2, 2020
passengers feel safe and confident to travel again. If no solution is implemented, airport revenue may lag the return of the commercial air transport industry, as passengers avoid airport boutiques, restaurants and bars altogether and plan just-in-time arrivals. Make no mistake about it, because of the number of people who normally cycle through global airports daily – and the close proximity of passengers to each other at numerous airport touchpoints – airports are one of the key battlegrounds in the fight against COVID-19.
LEADING-EDGE TECHNOLOGY WILL PROVE TO BE A CRUCIAL WEAPON
To ensure that the global airport industry gets back on its feet as quickly as possible, one area for the industry’s overarching focus is to ensure that airports are no longer defined by interminable, seemingly endless lines of passengers in close contact with each other. Passengers must feel safe and confident to travel again; long, slow moving lines, accomplish exactly the opposite.
