Gold Coast Airport tops the podium for passenger experience

Epic Growth – Epic Challenges

Australia’s Gold Coast has long been a destination of choice for the traveller in the know. Its beautiful beaches, famous hospitality and excellent weather attract hundreds of thousands of visitors each year. As a result, Gold Coast Airport has rapidly become one of Australia’s fastest-growing airports.

With seasonal and weekend peaks straining infrastructure and resources, impacting performance and traveller experience, the airport was under considerable pressure to perform. And, when something extraordinary occurs – such as, for example, the Commonwealth Games, the sudden influx of extra flights and visitors presented a whole new challenge, moving the goalposts and placing championship levels of expectation on GCA.

Planning to Win

Any sportsperson will tell you that winning takes preparation. In anticipation of not only the Games but also future growth targets, GCA decided to move to an integrated Airport Management System from Veovo. It would allow them to quickly consolidate operations onto one centrally managed platform, enabling more accurate resource planning and more efficient operational decision making. The new system went live in late 2017, crossing the line well in advance of the Games’ opening ceremony on 4 April 2018.

Since go-live, the airport can demonstrate some significant savings, including over 1.5 hours saved daily in the reallocation of resources. The automation of daily updates to the flight schedule has eliminated over 3.5 hours of manual changes each day, and on-time performance has increased by an average of 6.1 per cent (source OAG: year on year average OTP improvement for five month period January to May 2018).

Championing Passenger Experience

With thousands of additional passengers predicted, GCA also needed to urgently upgrade its guest engagement experience. With a new Flight Information Display System (FIDS), dynamic video walls and displays now provide visitors with a simple and easy way to navigate the airport. The layout of each screen can be quickly updated by the airport operations team with both location-specific information and promotional content.

During the Commonwealth Games, it allowed the airport to create customised welcome messages and videos to match team and supporter arrivals. It also enables GCA to tailor flight information, and arrivals and departure content, to passenger-specific needs. This extends to the baggage claim, where integrated baggage processing information gives travellers timely details on baggage availability status. Finally, It also offers the airport the opportunity to increase non-aero revenue from localised advertising, by matching retail offers to predicted passenger preferences.

Marion Charlton, Chief Operating Officer, Gold Coast Airport, said: “Gold Coast Airport places a strong emphasis on providing an exceptional passenger experience, and the Veovo solutions are helping us to deliver on that.”

While the Commonwealth Games may be over, it’s still game on at Gold Coast Airport. Their finely tuned operations and passenger-centric approach are set to be a long-term winning formula, as the airport carves out a bold, high-growth future.