Airports all around the world are famous for busy terminals, queue congestions, and longer wait times. Which is why passengers usually arrive hours earlier to their departure time. Another bigger problem is that the airports are expecting more passengers every passing month, especially during the peak seasons an airport is usually operating at more than its capacity. This requires the management to effectively utilize the given space and manage passenger flow more efficiently.However, the passenger satisfaction is also a biggest concern of the airport management. On top of that the airports are also responsible to ensure a smooth operations, disputes among the passengers, airlines, service staffs and other entities could impact the rating of the airport. The one thing that every passenger will have to go through is the security lines, boarding lines, and queues at different stages. Everything comes in between, if a passenger gets bad experience at a queue, then most probably they will end up having another bad interaction with another entity.
It is because of human nature, once we are annoyed, the same feelings could remain for some time, during that time if we interact with another service agent, we might not be more accepting and forgiving, and even some very small things could easily ruin our experience. One thing led to another, it is a kind of dominos effect, and one bad experience could impact all other interactions as well. That is why it is crucial for airports to have a proper queue management system and people counting tools to ensure a mother passenger flow. Furthermore the queue management system is a great tools to gather valuable business intelligence data. The data can provide insight to passenger flow and their behavior. Which will help the airport management to come up with better strategies and solutions to manage the passengers.
In this blog we will discuss how an airport should implement a modern queue management system solution to maximize their operational capabilities and while ensuring an exceptional customer experience for the passengers.
Queue Management System for the Airports
Typically a queue management system is a combination of software and hardware components. The software played a major part, however, the hardware needs depend on the situation and circumstances. The airports are not like any other ordinary service sector business. Unlike banks and hospitals, the airports doesn’t want passengers to go to a self-service kiosk or ticket dispensing unit to draw a ticket and then wait in the waiting areas or lobbies, as this could further complicate the management. However, for airports a virtual queue management system is an ideal option. The passengers can be provided remote communication channels such as mobile apps, SMS, WhatsApp and even online passenger portals. All the queuing information can be shared via these remote channels and the passengers can easily plan their visit to the airport. Moreover the management also need to analyze the crowed flow and chock points during all processes. For that an integrated people counting tool can significantly enhance the capabilities of a queue management system. Along with people counting module, the queue management system for airport also require an old-fashioned manual queuing solution to ensure maximum efficiency.
How to Implement an Efficient Queue Management System at Airport
For the airport the queuing management process is slightly different than the ordinary, there would be hardly any other business who will be receiving such a large footfall on daily bases. On top of that there are too many variables and things can get out of hand very quickly. Such as a few flights get delayed, a weather crises or any other reason which could cause huge crowd in lobbies, waiting areas and other parts of the airport. That is why it is crucial for the management to keep an eye on all such scenarios and learn from the past. The traditional people counting and queue management solutions are not capable of providing data intensive analytics which can help management get a better understanding of the passenger flow. Usually the passengers face long queues, at entrances, security check points, custom/immigration counters, and baggage drop or reclaim points, retail areas, and waiting lobbies, etc.
At such places and during the peak hours, it become very difficult for the management to ensure a smooth passenger flow. For that usually more staff is deployed and some airports also use self-service interactive information kiosks. A queue management system with people counting module can accurately identify the crowd formation, and it can also provide detailed information about how many more passengers are expected in a particular area in near future, and which areas can be made available to balance the passenger load in a certain section of the airport. All such features help management effectively manage the peak hours, and it also make them more read for unexpected situations. Apart from the queue management system and people counting, the physical queuing is also crucial. The airports should be equipped with the barriers, signs, belt barriers, guide pols, and queue management tools to manage and route the crowd manually to ensure smoother passenger flow even in crowded situations.
Virtual Queue Management System for Passengers
The virtual queue management system is a great tool to enhance customer experience. Airports can provide the queuing data along with the estimated time at each point to keep the passengers informed and updated. This allow passengers more freedom and flexibility to plan their visit. Hence there is no need to wait in the airport for hours. When all passengers start arriving closer to their flights, the crowd and congestion will automatically reduce. The passenger flow will become more efficient and there would be less passengers in the waiting areas. The airports can also issue e-tickets to passengers which can further reduce their wait time. The e-ticket allow passengers to arrive at the check-in counters at the very time their number comes, so there would be literally no queue at the counters. The people counting module is powered by AI (artificial intelligence) algorithms which enable queue management system to accurately measure the people at any location, and even it can also provide the heat map based on the people’s movement across different areas in the airports.
The queue management system software can related the people counting data with the queuing data from the past which enables it to accurately predict the wait time each passengers will have to face. The same information can be conveyed to the passengers as well. The queue management system for the airports comes with dedicated smartphone applications. The mobile apps allow passengers to monitor the queuing information in real-time and also enable a bidirectional communication channel between the passengers and the service staff. All the updates, notifications and alerts can be pushed through mobile apps, push-notifications and alerts at the mobile phone. Which ensures no passenger misses any important update. The SMS and email alerts can also be very helpful for passengers. These features help airports to effectively prevent any crowd formation or physical queues at the check-in counters. The queue management system can also be linked with the digital signage at the airport to provide live queuing details and any other data/information that can help passengers to move through the airport.
The airport management have two major problems, flight delays and unpleasant passenger experience at the airports. These two factors can have swear impact on the airport’s rating and it also repel passengers from the airport. If a passenger have at least two bad experiences at any particular airport they will try to avoid it at all costs. In fact passengers are willing to pay slightly more fair just to avoid the airports where they had bad experience. The flight delays happens, mostly due to slow moving passengers. Usually during peak hours, when a few flights arrived at the same time and a few are intended to depart during the same time slot, there could be huge flux of passengers at the airports. The virtual queuing features allow passengers to wait in the retail areas, entertainment areas, or anywhere else rather than standing in the long queues. Which can significantly enhance passenger experience. Smaller queues at the counters also help maximizing the performance of that staff as they can focus more on their primary tasks and there is no distraction usually common in manual queues.
Queue Management System Gather Valuable Business Intelligence Data
It is the business intelligence data that really makes a difference. The airport management need comprehensive analytical data to understand various trends and matrices of the passenger flow and it also help them understand and evaluate their performance. The queue management system and its AI based people counting tool gather valuable business intelligence data. It can accurately measure the number of passengers entering and leaving the airport along with their time spent in the airport. The system can also accurately measure the average time spent at each counter or process and provide all these details in a simple and easy-to-understand reporting format. The business intelligence data also help analyzing the staff performance. The passenger data can be used to estimate the expected passengers, and the airports can effectively implement various strategies to improve the passenger flow.
The queue management system data help management in decision making and strategy building processes with the ability to accurately predict the number of passengers at every check point or stop during the process and it can also monitor the average time spend at any passenger at any counter or process in the service. The queue management system also allow the staff and contractors to move through all counters without any delay to ensure a smooth operation. Furthermore the queue management system also provide management with in-built analytical tools and capabilities to configure automatic alerts and notification to alert the authorities and concerned staff to react to a possible crowd formation scenario. All these features are only possible due to the data collection and business intelligence gathering features of the queue management system. The airport management can integrate this data in their decision making and policy making processes to further improve the effectiveness of their strategies and policies over the time.
Conclusion
The airports are one of the busiest establishments with huge customer flux throughout the day and even night also. The world’s top ranking airports are all operating at more than their maximum capacity, however, even if an airport is operating at its limits, the peak hours and even peak seasons could be a problem for the airport management. That is why a queue management system can be a great help to ensure a smooth passenger flow. The airports also face difficulties in providing satisfactory passenger experience and frequent flight delays due to slow moving passengers is also very common. A queue management system equipped with right tools can be a great help for the airport management. The airport queue management systems are slightly different from the traditional digital queue management systems. Usually the virtual queuing is the preferred choice for the airports all around the world. The virtual queuing enable airports to significantly reduce the passenger waiting time and it can also be very helpful to establish an easy communication channel between the passengers and the airport staff.
Apart from virtual queuing the people counting features and the mobile apps can also increase the effectiveness and efficiency of the queue management system. RSI Concepts is a leading queue management system providers in Dubai, UAE. If you want to learn more about the subject or if you want us to help you building a tailor-made cost-efficient queue management solution, please feel free to contact us through our Contact Us page or leave a comment in the comment box below and we will get in touch with you soon.
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