Airport volunteers share ‘secret sauce’ to aid travelers
Jack Wilson loves being at the airport, a place most travelers find chaotic and frustrating. In fact, he’s usually there three or four days a week — and typically not to catch a flight.
Wilson, 71, started volunteering at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport after moving to Texas in 2017. The job became more important to the former fundraiser for the University of South Carolina after his wife died.
“I’m usually looking out for that person that has that glazed look on their face,” he said. Most travelers “are pretty easy to deal with. Sometimes all they want to do is vent, to know somebody is listening to them, to help them.”
Not every airport has volunteers — only eight of the 10 largest airports in the United States do — and since the pandemic their ranks have fallen by more than a third. But airport officials and coordinators say these helpers still provide islands of calm amid hectic airport crowds, offering assistance with everything from finding misplaced items to comforting grieving travelers.
“It’s almost like the secret sauce to our customers’ experience,” said Kenneth Buchanan, executive vice president of revenue management and customer experience at DFW. “We place the volunteers at points where customers have to make key decisions. They make a tremendous difference.”
Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International, the largest U.S. airport by passengers, now has 45 volunteers, compared with 87 in 2019. DFW, the second-largest airport, has about 300, just half the number before covid-19 gutted air travel. The ranks have slimmed because some people feared working in such a crowded environment, couldn’t pass security checks or didn’t like where they were assigned to work.
Volunteer programs are still dominated by retirees, including many who worked at airports or for airlines, but more younger people have joined the ranks since the pandemic. At DFW, teenage volunteers spend the day riding the airport Skylink trams that connect its terminals to make sure travelers get off at the right spot.
While the average age of volunteers at Chicago O’Hare International has dropped from around 68 before the pandemic to 63, the number of volunteers between 18 and 20 has steadily increased, said Anthony Medina, volunteer manager for Travelers Aid Chicago. Many of the younger volunteers have an interest in careers related to airport management, aviation or hospitality. Some airports hold recruitment fairs at high schools and colleges.
Volunteers typically work between two and four hours a day up to several times a week, and more during busy travel times. Denver International requires a minimum 32 hours per quarter.
“We may have lost numbers, but I think the volunteer corps that is now there is probably finding their service more meaningful, because they are busier and get to be in key locations and engage in helping a lot more people,” said Jane Mrosko, director of program services for Travelers Aid International.
More working professionals are also volunteering, according to program coordinators, and several airports have therapy dog programs.
Cristina Fraker, the volunteer program coordinator at DFW, said that about 30% of the airport’s volunteers have full- or part-time jobs elsewhere.
“Some are business professionals, a couple of doctors and nurses, and they said, ‘We need this feel-good kind of a time after work to wind down,’” she said.
Volunteers are needed as travel becomes more complex and airport concourses have become larger, said Henry Harteveldt, a travel industry analyst and founder of Atmosphere Research Group.
“Not everybody is comfortable using technology, not everybody has a smartphone, not everybody has an airport or airline app,” he said.
Volunteer organizers say they complement roles held by paid airport workers who move wheelchairs, check bags curbside, clean or fuel planes and handle baggage.
Rob Hill, executive vice president for 32BJ of the Service Employees International Union, said he’s not aware of problems where airport workers among its members were replaced by volunteers. Delta Air Lines Inc. workers “appreciate the help,” said Chief Executive Officer Ed Bastian.
“We’ve got 80 million passengers coming through our five airport terminals,” DFW’s Buchanan said. “We will take as many volunteers as we can get.”
Ronald Horn, 82, who has been with Denver International’s program since it began in 2015, said his Newfoundland dog Matilda was of particular comfort to a woman he saw sitting alone by a gate. She wrapped her arms around the dog and began to cry, later telling Horn: “I didn’t know how I was going to get through this today. I’m trying to get home to see my father before he dies.”
“You have every human emotion you can imagine going on in the airport,” he said. “People who are happy, happy, happy going on a special trip and people who are going off for some terrible event.”