Reimagining the airport model with a customer-focused, digital lens

The very nature of the aviation sector makes it an absolute necessity to have a long‐term view. It gives us the opportunity to track progress and reaffirm our approach each successive year.

While we are mindful of short‐term fluctuations to regional and global traffic due to socio‐economic factors, we also consider macro‐economic factors and emerging trends that influence our world and its future.

The performance of our airports in 2017 is a case in point. Despite numerous challenges to growth including laptop bans, visa restrictions, geo‐political issues and the resulting fluctuations in consumer confidence and demand, we achieved some 89 million passengers during the year.

In 2018 traffic across both of our airports, Dubai International (DXB) and Dubai World Central (DWC), is projected to exceed 90 million.

In the long term our geocentric location, our open skies policy that promotes traffic expansion and Dubai’s continued emergence a leading center for trade, commerce and tourism will continue to spur traffic growth.

Accordingly, we are solidifying plans to accommodate increased passenger numbers and growing cargo volumes.

While we continue to invest sufficiently in cost‐effective connection services and infrastructure, scale cannot be our sole focus going forward.

For instance, our DXB Plus program is designed to increase annual capacity from the existing 90 million passengers to 118 million without adding any major physical infrastructure.

Technology and process enhancement will instead boost Dubai International’s capacity by an additional 28 million passengers per year by 2023.

New solutions

This approach flies in the face of traditional thinking. Historically the industry’s approach to capacity expansion has been all about investing in bigger facilities to accommodate more passengers.

Current legacy thinking has also produced a series of vertical solutions for our customers to pass through horizontally, during which they are massed together into queues. This is not modern thinking.

Today’s most successful companies start with the customer. Examples of this abound.

Uber, Amazon, Facebook and eBay all take what customers hate about taxis, shopping, communication and selling stuff and eliminate all the hassle from their chosen industry.

What if we could bypass all the changes of mode, baggage issues, queues, multiple documentation and security checks and long walking distances – all the things we hate when we travel?

Paul Griffiths

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The aviation industry is shamefully behind. What is needed across our sector globally is breakthrough thinking with the customer at its center - and that is at the top of Dubai Airports’ agenda.

As an industry, we need to foster an environment that is collaborative, uses a common language, has common objectives and does not hide behind boundaries.

The most intrusive processes in travel revolve around documentation, validation and security occurring multiple times during a single journey.

The processes on the ground are the weakest part of the aviation supply chain. Legacy thinking would lead to the conclusion that the industry must strengthen the weaker links, while forward thinking would suggest that we eliminate them all together.

Customer focus

The definition and adoption of global industry standards for initiatives such as a single biometric footprint will transform the customer experience, by enabling a one‐time capture of data which can then be used at multiple points in the customer journey in a seamless and non‐intrusive way.

The design of airport infrastructure, processes and technology must be driven by the power of the customer to select the most convenient components of their end-to-end journey.

Imagine an airport with no check‐in, no immigration and discrete, non‐intrusive security, all enabled by a single identity database, securely held in the cloud and available to those who currently need physical evidence of our identity as we travel.

The possibility then emerges to re‐order the entire travel process around customer service rather than around the convenience of everyone else in the supply chain.

And if we extend our thinking around making the links between ground and air more efficient, then maybe we don’t need an airport terminal at all.

What if that journey could start at multiple points of convenience near where people live or work?

What if the airport terminal and building could be disaggregated into multiple smaller, convenient entry points into an airport transit system that can take customers from their homes or places of work directly to their plane?

What if we could bypass all the changes of mode, baggage issues, queues, multiple documentation and security checks and long walking distances – all the things we hate when we travel?

Personal mobility is also being revolutionized. Fast airport links will no longer be part of a mass transit system.

Pods will be able to take customers from their chosen point of entry directly to their plane in a matter of a few minutes – without leaving their seat.

A seamless, door-to-door solution will make the entire journey experience faster, more relaxing and more efficient. And it lies within our grasp.

In Dubai, we have a unique opportunity to take the next step in the evolution of the airport experience with our shared, connected customers.

So, as we review last year’s progress and this year’s projections, the long-term aspirational goal of revolutionizing the travel experience continues to propel us forward.