Up to snuff

Secondary-to-secondary services by their nature require operations through non-hub airports, and often at airports that the airline has not served before, only serves to and from its principal hubs, or only serves on a short-haul basis where service standards (and often classes of service) are different. Ensuring ground support at outstations that meets passenger expectations has long been a problem for airlines, but with less than hub-level support at both ends of a secondary-to-secondary route the issues are magnified.

A key consideration throughout the aircraft in the brave new secondary-to-secondary world is the more speed-sensitive, less cost-sensitive passenger. In some ways, it should be easier in a world with increasingly less first class – especially true on the smaller next-gen twins. As a result, however, business class products need to be improved so that experience-sensitive passengers do not route around the point-to-point service for a better flight.

With a mix of business, premium economy, extra-legroom economy and basic economy, most airlines need to think initially of the business traveller and upmarket leisure flyer when considering premium passenger experience. These fares are the ones that make or break secondary-to-secondary route economics. Various airlines consider premium economy as business or economy for airport service purposes, but as long as it’s one or the other it doesn’t crucially matter for service design beyond capacity issues.

Yet all these premium passengers are still served relatively poorly from most secondary airports. Lounges are often humdrum contract affairs, and in many airports the only options make a passenger experience designer shudder. This is most clearly seen in China, where lounges, even in the major airports, are often not designed to international levels of standards and services.

The three global airline alliances may be able to do some good work here. Joint, alliance-branded lounges that maintain a certain standard have been well received in the airports where they have been built, largely in primary airports. Smart design, an understanding of the trends of modern travellers, and an eye to the passenger experience could well reinforce the value of these alliances to both travellers and airlines – perhaps through an official stamp of lounge approval from the airline to signal to international flyers that a lounge is up to snuff.

Pitching other premium services outside the usual box might well be of benefit to airlines as well. In countries where staff costs are lower, for example, what additional benefits could an airline provide through its ground handling contractor? Could chauffeur and porter services be developed so that passengers don’t have to wait for luggage and are assisted through customs and immigration formalities? Could a concierge program be offered, for everything from securing a roaming SIM card or pocket wifi device to ensuring a fridge is stocked with necessities at a hotel or corporate apartment? Could chauffeurs or other staffers be enabled to also take care of check-in and bag tagging, perhaps through the use of wearables? Could we see a return to the age of city check-ins and priority drop-off locations where a premium passenger can be whisked around to a side entrance and processed quickly? Check-in and processing at a central city hotel, and then a corporate bus transfer to expedited screening, might be particularly welcome in certain countries. Why not airline ground handling on a dedicated upmarket luxury bus that collects passengers and their luggage from a city centre? Global operators like Swissport or Dnata should surely be able to come up with tempting offerings. Even something as simple as negotiating fast-track security screening that is actually faster than the regular slow track would be a start.

Many of these innovations may well require third parties to enable, which might give pause to the many passengers who have encountered idle, disinterested and disempowered ground handler contract staffers. But in the age of Uber, and in the context of increasing consolidation of ground handlers, it’s hard to make a technological argument why they wouldn’t be possible.