Consultant Report: Toronto Takes the Authority Out of Airport Authority
IDEO is driving Toronto Pearson International Airport (YYZ) to realize its goal of becoming the “world’s best airport” by thinking differently on how it operates.
YYZ operations involve 50,000 employees spread across 450 different organizations. Only 1,500 are employed by the Greater Toronto Airport Authority (GTAA), so IDEO recognized how important it was to get buy-in from all the different stakeholders.
“I’ve traveled through a lot of airports there’s really a big delta between what are the best experiences in the airport world and the medium,” said Owen Rogers, partner with IDEO. “There’s a lot of space to play in there and a lot of ways to make that actionable for Pearson to make change and make things different.”
Building a better traveler experience has traditionally been met with new infrastructure inside airports. New gates, amenities, security checkpoints and updated terminals can have an impact, but a lack of employee buy-in will keep new facilities from reaching their potential.
The project began in 2016 with IDEO meeting with stakeholders and walking the terminal with GTAA staff. They watched how different people moved throughout the terminal and how they reacted at different area.
Rogers said they observed a woman traveling with two children at the beginning of the stanchions to enter the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority (CATSA) security checkpoint get down on the floor and unpack her bag while waiting in line.
“As a designer, there’s nothing but opportunity there,” Rogers said. “She shouldn’t be having that experience. That’s a bad experience. There’s nothing but opportunity to design and take that away from her. You’ve got to believe that if you do that for her, all these other people are going to jump in line behind that.” IDEO wanted GTAA and its partners to focus on the common goal of serving the passenger and how to better serve them. Each of the entities, such as CATSA, GTAA, Air Canada and others had complicated relationships in the airport. IDEO got the different stakeholders together to understand the challenges they all have and get them all focused on one central goal of serving the traveler better.
“We didn’t change the infrastructure,” Rogers said. “We changed their relationship with how they take responsibility, how they work together as partners and how they ultimately view the passenger experience”
The firm held workshops starting with the CEOs of each entity down to front line workers and got to understand their duties and why they work at the airport. They discovered a deep sense of pride within these employees in working at the airport and encouraged them to share stories of providing human experiences for travelers. They campaign was called “I Am Toronto Pearson.”
The idea was to change the landlord-tenant relationship between GTAA and the other entities and make them all move together in a partnership.
“If the airport is working better and the ASQ scores are higher and they’re operating better, then everyone is having a better experience,” Rogers said. IDEO was asked to help YYZ with its new $500 million baggage system. The firm brought a more concept to the idea beyond belts and conveyors and designed a new role within the organization to be cross functional to deal with baggage incidents.
“Thinking about baggage as a human system — which it actually is, that’s supported by technology, not a technology system supported by baggage in my opinion — we were able to then design into the organization a new role and a new process with dealing with baggage incidents,” Rogers said. “Their baggage incidents have gone down and their ASQ has gone up because people are less frustrated.”
More than 32,000 employees went through the workshops and pledge their commitment to the traveler experience prior to the COVID-19 outbreak. Rogers said the partnership mindset continues to assist the airport and its tenants navigate through the pandemic realizing they all have a common goal.
Toronto remains committed to its goal of creating the world’s best airport. Rogers said it’s important they and others focused on the mission must keep talent in mind going forward to ensure the culture they’ve built remains strong.
“They need the right talent and they need the right mindset within the people in the organization to carry on and have that be something that’s culturally within the organization,” Rogers said. “Culturally care about the idea of passengers as opposed to wow, we’re just a business.
