LAX aims to improve service
Los Angeles International Airport was recently ranked one of the 10 most improved airports in the world.
But SkyTrax, the airtransport industry research company that gave LAX that ranking, also listed the facility as the 86th best airport in the world, behind airports in Russia, South Korea, Colombia and Peru.
LAX officials are hoping to improve the airport’s perception among travelers by launching an airportwide employee training program to “deliver a gold-standard” experience.
The effort is the airport’s first facilitywide training program. It includes not only LAX workers — police, janitors and customer service workers — but also employees at the airport’s restaurants, coffee shops and retail outlets.
In October, the Los Angeles Board of Airport Commissioners approved a contract worth up to $1.6 million with Maryland-based Customer Service Experts to help implement the training program.
Under the program, each of the airport’s 50,000 employees will watch a onehour film on how to be more courteous, helpful and informative. New employees will also undergo the training program.
To test workers, Customer Service Experts will send undercover “shoppers” through the airport to gauge how they are treated by LAX staff and vendors. If an LAX employee gets a low score based on how he or she treated a “shopper,” the employee will have to undergo additional training.
“This program is challenging because we have so many people and so many tenants,” said Barbara Yamamoto, chief experience officer at Los Angeles World Airports, which runs LAX. “But it is needed.”
Still, Yamamoto noted that LAX employees can’t be blamed if a traveler has a bad experience at the airport because of gnarly roadway construction, relocated gates and extra long screening lines.
“There’s a lot of things that happen at the airport that are not the fault of any particular person,” she said.
TSA PreCheck lines still seen as too long
TSA PreCheck was devised by the Transportation Security Administration to speed up airport screening for travelers who submit to a government background check in advance.
But a survey of nearly 2,500 North American travelers found that 45% of fliers who enrolled in TSA PreCheck still think the lines are too long and the $85 cost for a five-year membership may not be worth it.
The survey taken by OAG, a company that compiles and provides data to airlines, airports and others, found that the percentage of travelers who feel the TSA PreCheck lines are too long was even higher among business travelers, at 57%.
“When TSA PreCheck lines are unexpectedly long, travelers are feeling like they’ve been duped,” said John Grant, a senior analyst for OAG.
TSA officials fired back at the survey with statistics that show the number of people signing up for the program has doubled, from 2.3 million last March to 4.6 million this March.
TSA data also show that the nationwide average wait time for TSA PreCheck travelers is less than five minutes, compared to less than 10 minutes for travelers in standard screening lines.
“The proof is in the data,” TSA spokeswoman Lori Danker said. “These are single-digit waiting times.”
Emirates responds to U.S. restrictions
Emirates Airlines, one of several foreign carriers affected by new restrictions on electronics on flights to the United States, is responding to the directive with the help of “Friends” actress Jennifer Aniston.
A security directive from the United States bars passengers from bringing any electronic device larger than a smartphone into the cabin on flights to the United States from 10 airports in eight Middle Eastern and African countries.
Laptops, digital tablets, DVD players and other large electronic devices must be checked into luggage that is stored in the cargo hold.
In an ad released this week, Emirates responded to the new restrictions by showing Aniston playing games and watching movies on the airline’s seatback entertainment system.
“Who needs tablets and laptops anyway?” asks the message at the beginning of the ad. Later in the ad, after Aniston is shown using the backseat entertainment system on an Emirates flight, a message reads: “Over 2,500 channels of the latest movies, box sets, live sports and kids TV.”
The Department of Homeland Security declined to elaborate on why the new security restrictions were imposed on flights from Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Turkey and Morocco.
At least one news report suggests that terrorists may have designed an explosive that can fit into a large electronic device, but must be triggered manually.
Emirates flies several direct routes from Dubai in the United Arab Emirates to several U.S. cities, including New York and Los Angeles.