Improving Passenger Satisfaction Through Digital Airport Experience

Travelling can be a stressful experience for many. Once an airport has fixed the basics—such as a smooth check-in and security process, clear signage and convenient waiting areas—a digital airport experience can significantly improve a passenger’s journey. As an airport, you want to give travellers as much transparency and insight over the entire process as possible. At Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, we have introduced Travor—a passenger experience platform—as a multi-use case platform to elevate our passenger experience. Through industry collaboration we have further developed and deployed this platform at airports like Frankfurt, Hamad International Airport, Athens Airport and Keflavik Airport. In this article I'll explore a couple of use cases that are helping these airports:

Providing the Right Information within 30 Seconds

Imagine you’re walking through the terminal with some time left before your flight leaves. You want to know where your gate is, where to find your favorite coffee or where to store your luggage. You walk to a flight information display and are quickly lost with all the flight numbers on the screen. You're looking for an overview of all food & beverage offerings but you cannot find it. And where should you store your luggage? We researched passengers’ expectations and found that they require an answer to their specific question within 30 seconds, every second after, the stress level already starts rising. Our digital platform has a simple and effective user experience. Passengers can scan their boarding pass and receive a personal itinerary with all the information they need. They can also search on the map and across all frequently asked questions through a search bar. Over 99% of passengers find an answer to their question within 30 seconds.

From Reactive to Pro-Active Support

For passengers that require personal assistance I've noticed that many airports still have static information counters. Usually located in a couple of areas across the airport, with limited opening hours. This is a very reactive approach from an airport. Vital to great service is to anticipate the passengers’ needs.

Through a digital channel, an airport can take a much more proactive approach, by providing relevant information and service at defining moments in the passenger journey. If they cannot find what they are looking for quickly, the platform suggests calling an agent via video call. This personal touch when the passenger is in need is what really reduces stress and drives an elevated passenger experience.

“By offering real-time, multilingual, and personalized support through a digital platform like Travor, we’re transforming stressful travel moments into seamless experiences—empowering passengers with the right information, at the right time, in the language they understand best”

Talking the Passengers’ Language and Providing Scalable Support

Hundreds of different nationalities travel through an airport each day. Many also only travel once a year. Imagine yourself in a country with a different writing system or a country in which almost no one speaks English-usually a stressful experience, right? Offering multi-lingual support is essential. A digital platform can provide contextual information in the passenger’s own language. And it is highly scalable. During peak times with flights from foreign destinations or during disruptions, digital customer experience provides a scalable platform to provide information to all passengers.

Commercial Opportunities with a Personal Travel Itinerary

We offer each passenger a personal travel itinerary. With the flight information and location of the passenger known, the platform suggests the walking route, time needed and steps necessary to make it to the gate on time. If there is time to spare, the platform suggests activities for that extra time. By suggesting vouchers or discounts to passengers based on their location and time available, airports can capture revenue-generating opportunities and incentivize passengers to make use of outlets that might be less busy.

The Result: An Improved Passenger Experience

Travor has significantly enhanced the passenger experience at airports. The customer satisfaction (CSAT) of the videocall service is 4.6 out of 5. And passengers provide a 17 percent higher Net promoter score (NPS) to the airport compared to passengers that have not interacted with the platform. Additionally, GenAI is offering even more opportunities to further enhance and personalize the digital airport experience.