USA. The impact of digital on the airport experience is the central theme of our latest video & podcast interview in partnership with Airport Dimensions.
The four-part series, titled ‘Explore the Experience Era’, features insights from industry leaders across a range of topics: Reinventing retail, overcoming the space squeeze, personalising the airport experience and digital transformation.
In this episode, The Moodie Davitt Report President Dermot Davitt and Airport Dimensions Senior Vice President of Global Business Development Chris Gwilliam speak to San Francisco International Airport Chief Financial and Commercial Officer Kevin Bumen and Chief Digital Transformation Officer Iyad Hindiyeh about the fundamental role of digital.
Click on the video above (or the podcast below) to access the third episode of our series, Explore the Experience Era
Hindiyeh homed in on the Technology Improvement Plan (TIP), an ambitious roadmap to transform the airport’s digital reach and capability.
He said, “We started by assessing the challenges of capacity and our operational needs, bringing together around 40 partners to help us develop TIP. But our starting point was not the technology but agreeing on what our business requirements are as we grow. That came first.”
Bumen added that the intersection of technology with consumer-facing and commercial activities is essential.
“As we began these conversations around TIP, we wondered ‘what if?’ What if you conceived the digital investment and improvements in much the same way as you think about brick & mortar improvements, ensuring that digital is embedded in your capital programme.
“As we looked at our ability to expand our ability to grow revenues beyond our ability to grow the size of the airport, digital becomes a fundamental requirement. Beyond that our passengers expect digital services and experiences. TIP enables that and allows us to build guest programmes that rely on this.”
He said that much current point-of-sale and CRM data from partners is a “blind spot” for the airport, which should change with this evolution in how technology is deployed.
Hindiyeh said that in moving to a new view of what digital represents, a critical shift in thinking took place at the airport. From a mindset focused around kerb to gate, it is now more on “keyboard to door” and beyond simply the airport journey.
The impact of this shift on people and the organisation is also important. Bumen said, “TIP is driving us to think differently about our reason for being. We have great infrastructure managers for real estate who also need to be good managers of digital infrastructure.”
Bumen added that relationships with partners, led by airlines, must stretch to the digital world rather than working off siloed systems.
Data also presents opportunities to segment travellers in new ways, added Bumen. “Good data leads to good decisions, and we are working hard to ensure we have high-quality data.” An example is the online parking reservation system, which today presents the airport with insights into travellers and their spending habits that it did not have before.
On the impact of and ambitions for technology, Hindiyeh said: “Technology has really brought our teams together and it is clear that technology is a very important component in the future success of SFO.”
Bumen added, “The power of all the pieces we have from phones to watches or other devices is bigger than anything in aviation before. I see significant changes ahead in the next five years. It comes down to how we bring the right message and data to the right person in the right place at the right time.”
*Click here for the first interview in the Explore the Experience Era series, with Bangalore International Airport Ltd Vice President Commercial Development Pravat Paikray.
**Click here for the second interview in the series, with London Gatwick Airport Chief Commercial Officer Jonathan Pollard. ✈
