AIRPORTS ‘REIMAGINE’ PASSENGER EXPERIENCE:

Nearly two decades after the 9/11 terrorist attacks transformed airports, leading to security barriers where none existed before, the coronavirus pandemic is once again upending air travel.

This time, the focus is on health measures and the use of technology that, in theory, could make the experience “touchless” and more automated, but could also lead to higher ticket prices.

“We need faster, cleaner, better ways to get through the airport,” said Robyn Mcvicker, vice-president of operations and maintenance at Vancouver Airport Authority. “It’s something that we believe is the future.”

Already, the Vancouver airport and others are doubling down on touchless technology that allows passengers to print a baggage ticket and drop their bags off at a self-serve kiosk that eliminates the need to touch or interact with anyone at the airport.

She said her team is working on a project called “Phoenix” that reimagines “every single process in the airport” using technology, whether that means waiting in line, waiting at the gate and even the need for paper tickets. In the future, Mcvicker thinks airports will begin using biometric facial scans, so passengers can glide through the airport in less time, with less waiting.

The pandemic, by almost completely halting air travel, has transformed airports into vast hollowed-out facilities with little revenue, and accumulating costs. But that transformation also has created the space and impetus for airport executives to get serious about redesigning the passenger experience.

“The industry has never been more aligned on how do we make things better than it is today,” said Mcvicker.

There is much at stake in figuring out how to bring air travel back. Airports across the country are facing sharp declines in revenue. Even with widespread layoffs, some airports are looking to raise money by increasing the fees passengers pay, or borrowing, just to pay their overhead.

Nathan Janzen, a senior economist with the Royal Bank of Canada, said aspects of the economy “that require people to congregate” will be the slowest to recover.

But he said airports form a crucial backbone to the economy, allowing people to travel to a region, facilitating investment in businesses and allowing a freer flow of goods.

“Those are the kinds of things that can be a structural impediment to a longer term to medium term recovery, if you don’t figure out a way to make them work,” Janzen said.

The drop in air travel has been dramatic. One day in mid-june, about 5,000 people arrived or departed on a flight out of the Vancouver International Airport — about 97 per cent fewer than the 75,000 people who would normally service the airport.

Across the country, other airports, big and small, are experiencing similar situations.

In Calgary, for example, about 1,000 passengers were travelling on a day when normally there would be 24,500 passengers.

Toronto’s Pearson Airport reported a 97 per cent drop in passenger traffic in April.

No one is under any illusion that air travel will snap back to pre-pandemic level anytime soon.

All airlines have implemented temperature checks, health screening questions and enhanced cleaning. Seat distancing, or leaving the middle seat unoccupied on larger planes, and only booking every other seat on smaller planes, has also become de rigueur.

Transport Canada requires all passengers aged two and up to bring their own face mask and wear it for the duration of the flight.

Despite these measures, people aren’t travelling.

“The airport’s not a comfortable place these days,” said Barry Rempel, president and chief executive of Winnipeg Airports Authority. “It’s a welcoming building, but it’s empty.”

To coax people back into airports, he said staff are taking extra precautions — hand-sanitizer stations have been added throughout the building and the staff-to-passenger ratio is high enough that every single screen can be immediately cleaned after it’s used.

Still, Rempel said his revenues are about three per cent of normal. While the Winnipeg Airport Authority slashed capital spending plans from $175 million to $7 million, Rempel has also applied to raise the airport ‘improvement fee’ that every passenger pays as part of their ticket fare, from $25 to $38.

While the federal government has waived the lease payments airports pay until December — which typically amount to between 11 and 12 per cent of total revenues, according to several airport executives interviewed for this article — Rempel said it will not be enough to save his airport.

Reid Fiest, a spokesman for Calgary Airports Authority, said his company is hoping the federal waiver is extended for four or five years so airports can manage their debt and “make people feel comfortable and that it’s safe to travel.” He expects that could take three to five years, “but there is still a lot of uncertainty.”

The simple reality is, no one knows when air travel will return.

“It’s the billion-dollar question,” said Mcvicker. “The reality is, forecasting is a voodoo science right now.”