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1 s u m m a r y Airport operators around the United States and the world are challenged with determining what role they should play in the movement toward a greater level of passenger self-service. Facilitating passenger self-service has primarily been driven by airlines, specifically with regard to passenger processing; however, airport operators are increasingly aware that they play a vital role in developing an end-to-end, integrated passenger self-service strategy. The question for airport operators is how to consider, evaluate, and make strategic decisions for implementing and optimizing a comprehensive passenger self-service experience for a variety of sizes of U.S. airports and in cooperation with airlines and other stakeholders. Commercial air travel depends on passenger identification and passenger capacity to make financial transactions. Every passenger is required to provide identification for travel and to pay for it. As would be expected, the evolution of passenger self-service is closely tied to these two items. As air travel has matured, a third item has grown in importance for airport opera- tors, airlines, and regulatory agencies: the ability to predict information about the passenger and what he or she intends to do. Technological advancements have facilitated all three of these items coming together in a âvirtualâ environment of connected (networked) computers and databases. These advancements have not only resulted in improved means of passenger facilitation, but have also given more control to passengers in shaping their travel experience. The result is a passenger-customized travel experience that is facilitated and monitored by airport operators, airlines, and regulatory agencies in what can be called the passengerâs virtual record. Passenger self-service has been a part of the industry for decades and has largely advanced through technological breakthroughs and innovations, similar to those found in the manu- facturing process. This guidebook develops this comparison by categorizing the advance- ment periods in both the manufacturing and aviation industries into stages, with Stage 1 indicating the initial periods of both industries. Each stage is mapped out using graphical images and brief descriptions showing the progression from agent-driven, one-at-a-time processing of passengers to the multiprocessing of passengers through self-customization and personalization of the travel journey. With this understanding, the airport operator must still manage the airport as a âcommon environment.â Environment in this context is a general term referring to the facility, infor- mation technology systems, policies and procedures, and all elements needed to manage the cohesive asset known as the airport. By managing the airport as a common environment, the airport operator can facilitate services for the passenger and the experience as he or she travels through the various process areas of the airport (arrival, airside, etc.). It is through this means that the airport operator works with its airlines and other tenants, managing and accommodating the variations within each operating model. Implementing Integrated Self-Service at Airports
2 Implementing Integrated self-service at airports The industry is now considering a far more simplified view of the passenger journey. Rather than analyzing every potential functional step (check-in, bag drop, etc.), airport operators, airlines, and industry associations are focusing on how to accommodate passenger travel requirements as they move through the processing areas. As the airport operator, airlines, and other major tenants consider how passengers travel through the processing areas, planning across a common environment must take on an integrated approach. Every airport operator has a unique perspective through which its passenger self-service strategy should be designed. These perspectives are shaped by aspects such as business driv- ers, airline operating models, passenger profiles, and industry involvement. Defining the perspective for a specific airport will help the airport operator develop a passenger self- service strategy and make a valid case to obtain the required level of management support. Executive management support for a passenger self-service strategy is absolutely critical for creating a vision and enabling the long-term viability of a successful program. Opera- tions, planning, and information technology all play a fundamental role in the planning and implementation of passenger self-service initiatives and must have active executive support from the beginning in order for the airport-wide process changes to be accepted. A formal organization is needed to plan and govern an integrated passenger self-service program. This organization serves as the center hub for stakeholder engagement and performs and/or oversees the planning, implementation, and review of passenger self-services airport- wide to ensure a consistent approach toward achieving passenger self-service objectives that are fully aligned with the airport business objectives. Without a means to measure performance, passenger self-service initiatives and the pro- gram as a whole may function for years without ever producing the outcomes necessary to achieve their objectives. In order to evaluate success or failure and to make necessary adjust- ments, key performance indicators must be developed, monitored, and reported. Several key factors play a pivotal role in the design of passenger self-service initiatives that, if not adequately considered, can result in failure. Stakeholder consensus, regulatory and legal issues, and privacy concerns are a few of these key factors. It is also imperative to evalu- ate the likelihood of achieving the expected benefits and of experiencing potential risks. There are a number of fundamental impacts within the airport environment that must be understood and addressed to support a successful implementation. These include the manage- ment of data, provision of connectivity, use of enabling technologies, changes to the facility, human resources, and communications with passengers. A proactive approach to addressing these items from a high-level strategy standpoint will greatly increase the probability of success. A well-conceived and thoroughly justified program can quickly lose support as a result of a single poorly implemented initiative. When there has been a significant investment of resource time in strategy development and program planning, project implementation is not the time to start cutting corners. Each project must adhere to a structured implementation process that applies the appropriate depth of planning for the size and scope of the project. Monitoring and reporting the defined performance criteria for each and every initiative is necessary to ensure that needed adjustments are made to continue progress toward achiev- ing the stated objectives or that initiatives are halted before further resources are wasted. This is a critical component of the quality management process. As passenger self-service projects are closed out and transitioned to steady-state opera- tions, the focus cycles back to the planning steps, where data are analyzed, objectives are tweaked, key performance indicators are adjusted, and corrective actions are taken. Each component of the integrated passenger self-service program will continue to change as fun- damental impacts change, new factors for consideration emerge, and perspectives evolve.
