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SERVICES AND AMENITIES
REBOOT Staying Social:
AIRPORTS CONNECT WITH TRAVELERS ONLINE
Video Game
EXPERIENCES TAKE OFF
Cargo
Delivers Gains
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12 Personal Space
Airport lounges and private spaces for passengers are in high demand, while more intimate services such as massages and manicures have struggled to remain relevant in a pandemic world.
18 Playing the Game
Video games are more popular than ever. Providing gaming experiences in airports may be a viable avenue for supplementing struggling concessions programs.
20 The Social Solution
3 Letter From the Editor-in-Chief 4 Data Check
Airports have been active on social media for years now, but these platforms currently offer unique access to the traveling community that airports wouldn’t otherwise have in a pandemic world.
Employee satisfaction and customer service training are top of mind for airports and concessionaires as traffic perks up and furloughed and new employees take on front-line positions.
24 Staying Strong
6 Latest Buzz
28 Cargo Comes Through
9 Director’s Chair
Airports floundering to find their tech footing find collaboration through the Airport Consortium on Consumer Trust.
When the pandemic hit and consumer travel dipped, some airports found they were able to sustain operations with increased cargo traffic.
Seattle-Tacoma International Airport’s new International Arrivals Facility alleviates decades-long issues by consolidating and streamlining the arrivals process.
32 5&Under
Recovery is happening at its own pace everywhere, but airports that serve national parks, leisure destinations and other naturecentric getaways are leaps and bounds ahead of the national average.
35 Advertising Index 36 Before You Take Off
Providing spaces for respite has been a growing trend in airports recently. SeattleTacoma International Airport is the latest to provide both a Sensory Room and an Interfaith Prayer & Meditation Room.
Mobile Regional Airport is preparing to move passenger service to the city’s Mobile Downtown Airport, a project years in the making, under the direction of Chris Curry, president of the Mobile Airport Authority.
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Airports Offer Information, Insights And A Bit of Fun Using Online Platforms And Media BY SHAFER ROSS
Social media is ubiquitous; a utility, a hobby, a career – the many ways online social platforms are used make them an almost essential part of most peoples’ daily lives. Leaving the social media stone unturned is to miss out on a huge opportunity to connect with groups of people and communities that organizations might not have access to otherwise. “We try to be funny; we try to make fun of ourselves, we try to talk about conspiracy theories,” says Alex Renteria, public information officer for Denver International Airport (DEN). “Now more than ever we’re focused on engagement. You can have all the followers in the world but if they don’t care about what you’re posting, how are you ever going to inform them?” Renteria and a colleague manage the airport’s popular social media channels. She also hosts the YouTube video series “DEN Virtual Tour,” which gives brief overviews of current projects and interesting new happenings around the terminal. Even before the pandemic sequestered many in their homes, stifling the ability to travel, many airports had embraced online social spaces as avenues to attracting more travelers. “The benefit of being active online is that that is the world we live in,” Renteria says. “That is how we connect with our passengers. …It’s how [we] get a lot of information. “It’s different [for us] because we’re very weird. Our conspiracy theories, our funky art, the fact that you have to ride a train – it’s very memorable,” she adds. “So, I think that we’re lucky in that we get to engage in fun topics that people are interested in because they’re interested in the airport.”
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