Articles tagged “passenger experience”

There have been so many advances in aviation in the past couple of decades that there are almost no routes between major world cities a modern airliner cannot fly. Sydney to New York and London are two of those routes. But perhaps not for long.

We know it takes a long time to retrofit airplanes. And we know airlines hate to remove planes from service. But we wish Alaska could work faster to add speedy Wi-Fi. Three years is a long time to wait.

Yes, Americans do make video calls in their everyday lives. But they make them using machines they own. Do airline passengers want to resolve issues by using one of five kiosks in an airport terminal? Perhaps some do, but we're betting many will find the phone just as useful. This seems like it would have a been a novel announcement in 2009.

If this works at scale, it'll be appreciated by travelers in hub airports, where there's often not enough time to grab food between flights. But reliably delivering food to passengers waiting at gates is logistically difficult, if not impossible. We'll see if these new services can pull it off.

There's more hub competition heating up in the region, but Hong Kong's Chek Lap Kok manages to capture the magic and inspiration of travel.

With good management, this ultra low-cost airline strategy is profitable just about everywhere. The key? Airlines like Viva Aerobus must be fanatical about costs, and they must provide the cheapest fares, all the time. They also should treat their customers fairly.

Yes, airline frequent flyer programs probably were more lucrative a decade ago. But savvy travelers can still get a lot of value out of the programs and their affiliated credit cards.

No, these special airline VIP lobbies are not new. But all three full-service U.S. airlines are investing in them, with each trying to one-up the other. If you're a regular coach customer, you likely don't care. But if you have access to these lobbies, you're probably pleased.

It's 2017. According to SITA, 98 percent of airline passengers fly with at least one mobile device. It's amazing that so many passengers still prefer to the face-to-face experience at airports. It's a lot slower than self-service, and often less effective.

Building a coach airline seat is not like creating home furniture. Building stuff for aircraft is remarkably complicated. We got an inside look recently at the production center for an aircraft seat maker. Here's some of what we learned.