Re-inventing airport non-aeronautical revenue generation post COVID-19

Supported by:

5 November 2020

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Supported by:

5 November 2020

Watch now

The travel industry has been decimated by COVID-19 and airports have become white elephants for many months. When the big resumption happens, recovery is anything but guaranteed. There will be a new breed of travellers, concerned about very different things from the past. They will be more concerned about safety than shopping. Physical distancing and hygiene considerations may negatively impact food and beverage retail and other traditional airport service propositions.

Clearly, the game will have changed, and not least because travellers will have become a lot more digitally empowered and savvy. There will be a ‘new normal’, and it should ideally be one that is better than the old one we’ve left behind.

What is the one big thing that airports need to do to enable this new normal to deliver better non-aeronautical revenues than before? How can airports reinvent their traditional siloed commercial and operational models, to implement one platform and deliver one experience to all travellers – anything, anytime and anywhere?

Using learnings and case studies from our experiences in designing, building and implementing similar transformational digital and transactional platforms for Frankfurt, Auckland and Heathrow, as AOE CEO, Kian Gould, showed that a paradigm change is already possible and indeed, no longer an option but an imperative.