Airports are often referred to as cities within cities, employing more than 1.2 million people across 485 commercial airports across the country. This makes the airport an incredibly unique work environment - and it’s a 24/7 operation.
From pilots and flight attendants to maintenance workers and concessionaire associates, airports need to account for all of these critical job roles in order to minimize the chaos that airports, by nature, are designed to create. While it seems logical to approach enhancing the airport experience by focusing on improvements that can be made to customer-facing services and operations, this isn’t necessarily the best way forward.
The truth is, without efficient internal operations, there are no happy customers. This is why airports need to make perfecting the employee experience their top priority, and one of the best ways to do that is by alleviating a common pain point associated with working at an airport: the inevitably stressful commute that comes along with the job.
Enter the airport shuttle, powered by data
Airport traffic has gotten progressively worse across the board. The cause is not just the record number of travelers, but a universal shift to ride-sharing. Take Portland International Airport in Oregon, which just reported ride-share pickups there have climbed from 48,000 to 106,000 in the last two years. While the resulting increased traffic is certainly frustrating for travelers, it’s arguably more of an inconvenience for the employees whose daily commutes are being compromised.
These traffic challenges make getting around the workplace an incredibly difficult task for airport employees. Not to mention that these workers are commonly tasked with having to navigate foreign airport locations, making commutes that much more stressful (and confusing). One way many airports have attempted to help employees manage these obstacles is through offering shuttle services dedicated to getting employees from point A to point B as efficiently as possible. However, airports have a huge opportunity to take these services to the next level by taking a page out of Uber’s book.
Uber and Lyft pride themselves on their ability to gather and analyze data to inform services and make predictions about everything from customer wait time, to where drivers should be located to increase ride requests. Airport operators can be just as data-driven and offer a comparable service. Companies like Journey Holding, which helps airport operators manage transit data and gain a comprehensive look at transit needs as a result, can help airport operators deliver this level of service to employees by allowing airports to see how many riders they are serving a day, or how full each bus is to optimize routes. Analysis of transit data can also identify areas that aren’t being served enough, allowing airport operators to effectively manage fleets to ensure employees aren’t missing shifts or causing flight delays due to a lack of available, reliable services.
Ultimately, what people like most about rideshare is the control it allows them to have over their travel experience - and this especially applies to commuters who are tied to a schedule. The convenience of being able to order a ride on-demand, track that ride, and anticipate arrival times all through an intuitive smartphone application is what draws commuters to rideshare services or personal vehicles. But airport operators have the opportunity to provide that same level of convenience to workers on their own. By harnessing external resources like Journey Holding, which develops technology that powers typical shuttle service with GPS tracking technology and on-demand capabilities, airports can give employees the same reliability an Uber or their own car would, but in a format that’s accessible and affordable to every employee.
The link between employee support and a company’s bottom-line
Increased air traffic and heightened security standards have put airport workers under more pressure than ever. This is why, for airport workers in particular, providing benefits that enhance their work experience - like making it easier for them to get to and from work - are so valuable. Offering benefits that ease the stress workers face during the daily commute helps position them to optimally service others. If employees feel supported, satisfaction and productivity are automatically heightened as a result. This means employees are that much more willing and able to deliver top-notch service to customers.
What’s more, offering employee benefits like dependable transportation can significantly enhance the external perception of the brand. Studies have found that companies with high employee engagement had twice the customer loyalty (repeat purchases, recommendations to friends) than companies with average employee engagement levels. Having engaged employees can directly impact profitability, too. For example, Sears measured that a 5-point improvement in employee attitudes drove a 1.3-point improvement in customer satisfaction and a 0.5% improvement in revenue.
Beyond improving employee retention and customer perception, offering benefits like commuter shuttle service can also save airports money over time. This happens primarily through staff retention reducing the budget needed for recruitment efforts, but shuttle service can also cut costs that would otherwise be spent elsewhere - like paying for employees’ mileage, or building more parking garage space to accommodate personal vehicles.
At the end of the day, the aviation industry yields work environments that are largely dictated by factors outside of anyone’s control, from weather to air traffic delays to busy holiday travel periods. This environment can be stressful for employees. To combat this and ensure employees, and thus, customers are happy, it’s crucial that employees are given access to these types of benefits and services that are rooted in bettering the employee experience first and foremost.
With over a decade of experience in the transportation industry, Justin has a grassroots knowledge of vehicle tracking and a passion for improving lives through technology. Combined with his leadership skills and understanding of the market, Justin heads the newly merged TransLoc, Ride Systems and DoubleMap organization with a focus on customers and their riders.
