Airports and Airlines: A Growing Disconnect
No doubt many airports have been working hard to improve their services and offerings over the past 10 years and certainly the improvements are impressive when compared to the state of things in the 1980’s and early 1990’s. Where there was often nothing, you now find restaurants, shops and even accommodations for cell phones and laptops. Free wireless is starting to become popular at some airports (Hello Denver and Shame on You DFW) and you can definitely find a Starbucks at most major airports. If not Starbucks, at least a decent cup of coffee.
But air travel changed during those improvements. When these changes began to be planned, people accompanying passengers could actually go through security and stay with their friends right up to the gate. Airlines served something called a “meal” and it was often hot. Beverages were free and it was usually possible to find an inexpensive flight without traveling before 6am in the morning.
Not anymore. One of the biggest challenges in picking someone up at most airports is that there is quite literally no place to loiter while waiting. One hour or curbside parking has been eliminated from anyplace in close proximity of the air terminals. Go visit a baggage claim area these days and see how that is working out. There are few seats and because it is often the most ignored area of an airport, it is cramped and far away from other airport services.
Since airlines now insist on passengers arriving earlier for their flights and because those same airlines can have a lot of trouble keeping a schedule, people have to arrive at the airport earlier and find themselves staying in the terminal longer. But what about those who have friends they would prefer to visit with longer? There are no comfortable areas to do so any longer and certainly no restaurants accessible landside. What if they smoke? It is highly inconvenient to walk from their gate back outside to have a cigarette and return. Yet, those people get *real* cranky when they’re forced to sit gateside for hours waiting for an airplane to turn up and unable to enjoy a cigarette.
Airports actually need new solutions for these logistical changes. They need cell phone holding areas on their property where people can park short term and wait in their car for a phone call asking them to pick up their arriving friends and family. Sure, some airports do have this but they are often located in a poor section of the airport and they are poorly advertised or signed for their purpose.
A few concessions such as newsstands and restaurants on the landside area would be good too. Certainly most of those concessions should be on the airside of a terminal but having just a few locations landside would provide a huge service for all. I once had to spend 5.5 hours in a vacant hallway at Philadelphia waiting for someone to drive from Tennessee to pick me up because there were simply no places to go and wait quietly. Oh, I did walk nearly a mile to a hotel to have a meal and I did clean up in their restrooms but it took some time and effort to find that option too.
On the airside, newsstands still fill a need but those places also struggle to provide the kind of goods that more and more people want prior to boarding an aircraft. If I were 7-11, I would template a convenience store for airports and get myself into the business of being an airport convenience store rather than a newsstands that sells some water, juice and candy. Fast food restaurants should look into packaging their food differently so that it can be carried on to an airplane conveniently. Instead of using combination meals conceived for the rest fo the world, they should look into packaging combination meals that make sense for an airplane or a lobby seat.
Don’t like smokers? Fine, that’s your right. However, more than 35% of the adult world does smoke and while you shouldn’t be expected to endure smoke if you don’t want to, it would be a good service to accomodate those who do want to enjoy a cigarette. Provide a small, enclosed smoking area and be done with the problems that come from people who’ve spent hours without nicotine.
Create a kiosk system of small vendors of things like hot dogs or coffee in the baggage claim area. Those areas are crammed with people now who are waiting long stretches of times for arrivals and they’ll enjoy the opportunity to buy a snack or beverage while waiting. Find a way to provide more seats in these areas and offer better information on arrivals. The more you facilitate these pick ups, the smoother things will go in these areas.
Airline service has had to change and while some airports have done better at accommodating those fundamental changes in the industry, most have neglected those needs in a bad way. It is time to close that disconnect.
Are you aware that several airports, especially in the West have “cell phone” waiting areas? You park very near the airport baggage area, wait til your passenger calls to say they are off the plane and picking up luggage. Then a few minutes later you can pick the passenger up easily at baggage area. Or, as we do, pick up on departure level where there are far fewer people and cars. Especially if you choose the last doorway going away from the terminal. Maybe this would not work in an airport like DFW which is designed differently from most, but it works in most “regular” airports.
Yes, I am. It is available at some airports and I did first see it at the PDX airport but it is not universal or even common among US airports. Particularly among the large hub airports such as DFW, IAH, IAD, ORD, EWR, LGA, JFK, ATL or LAX.