The function of an airport will need to change for the future

To most people, the function of an airport is simple and singular – it’s where you go when you want to travel over a long distance quickly. In reality, however, we use them for so much more. Airports provide vast spaces which accommodate abundant amenities; dozens of restaurants and retail outlets which provide a comfortable setting for travellers in and out of the country. Many airports pride themselves on being the first and last thing someone sees in a city or country and strive to create the best possible impression. Currently, the bulk of this is located airside. However, to maximise benefits, there is a strong case to also target those who are landside.

What operators should be looking at more and more isn’t just how to impress tourists, but how to draw in local people for the same experience. The function of airports is no longer singular – and the need for operators to find other sources of income has been accelerated considerably in recent months.

The impact of COVID-19

Every industry, to different extents, is having to adapt to survive as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, but there are few that have been hit as hard as aviation. Airports across the world have closed their doors, resulting in significant redundancies for those in the industry – with over 350,000 job losses reported worldwide so far.

Even as we attempt to return to some semblance of normality, the long-term effects of coronavirus are going to make many unwilling to travel, and leave others lacking the resources to do so. A summer of travel has already been disrupted and, for many passengers, post-pandemic trips are on the back burner. Without these passengers, airports must find a way to stay afloat, continue operating and work through the current crisis.

Offsetting revenue declines

For airport owners and operators, this presents an extreme problem as they attempt to make their businesses viable. Overall, the concept of readjusting focus to offset a drop in revenue is something which airports had already begun to consider before the pandemic hit – though this has certainly made the need more urgent. For example, driverless car technology and increased environmental awareness are both likely to reduce the number of cars travelling to airports and, therefore, reduce parking revenue – traditionally a substantial revenue stream for airports.

To offset these drops, some of the newer airports have been designed to draw in additional custom from the local community – a solution which, with coronavirus likely to affect the industry for the medium term at least, I believe more operators will look to mimic. The overall concept is this: For years, airports have been places designed to help people reach their destination. Now, they will evolve to become destinations in their own right.

Becoming a destination instead of a gateway

Airports themselves will need to play a greater role in providing a source of income beyond air travel. The design of new facilities and the redesign of old will continue to change to accommodate that – considering how they can create new revenue streams which attract landside visitors.

The basic design concept is reasonably straightforward. Large, open plan recreational areas located landside and designed as places local people want to visit – essentially competing with other attractions in the area. Retail is obviously a large component of this. As it stands, in most airports, retail is constrained to the group of travellers who have gone through security, but this change would make it and other amenities accessible to everyone.  

Jewel at Changi Airport 

At Buro Happold, we’ve recently worked on one of the earliest examples of this – the Jewel development at Singapore Changi Airport (SIN), which opened its doors in 2019 and was designed by Safdie Architects. A new structure in the centre of the airport, located between existing terminals on the site of a former open-air car park, Jewel features landside retail, accommodation and leisure facilities, as well as a 5.6 acre garden that houses the largest indoor waterfall in the world.

Jewel epitomises this idea that airports can be more than places people are forced to pass through en route to where they want to be. There are attractions onsite designed to encourage stopover passengers to choose Singapore over Hong Kong and other prominent transit airports. Jewel is there to entice people into Singapore, and placing the amenities landside attracts locals in as well. 

Focusing on responding to COVID-19, the approach at Jewel also lends itself an additional element to redesign – that of protecting traveller health and wellbeing. Embracing the use of robotics, self-service kiosks and automated services to aid people to practise social distancing will begin to restore the confidence needed for more hesitant travellers to return to aviation. The key here is to ensure more effective mobility throughout the airport. To keep both tourists and locals safe, the other facet of this is in extensive public space – easing the task of creating an environment conducive to social distancing.

In the design, we were able to use a ‘big data’ approach to consider how to create an open structure, with the single layer gridshell structure allowing and modulating increased light, air and openness. Moving onto the day to day procedures, Jewel incorporates technology in the running of the airport, which allows operations to change smoothly in the event of unforeseen needs, such as social distancing.

Right now, Jewel is a public space like no other in the world. But, as priorities and business realities shift, this is certain to change. Redesigning airports so that they become destinations in their own right, for locals as well as tourists, is the clear way to ensure that revenue continues to come in – offsetting drops which can be planned for and those which can’t.  

There is no reason why airports can’t compete with other local amenities to become popular people-centric destinations. We need a change which keeps the industry robust amidst an uncertain future. As Jewel proves, we have the space, the technology and the ability to achieve this.