Dubai Airports is “deconstructing” the travel experience where passengers will just have to buy the ticket and will not have to take out their passports for immigration, or laptops and liquids for screening. They will drop off their luggage at the carousel and walk straight to the aircraft for boarding.
Paul Griffiths, CEOf of Dubai Airports, shared this vision for Al Maktoum International Airport at Dubai World Central (DWC), built around removing the traditional friction points of air travel, starting with check-in, during a briefing with the local and international media on Thursday.
“I want to make you think you’re not at an airport, and if I manage to achieve that, then that will be a big tick in the box. The whole idea is that the whole check-in process should vanish, so you shouldn’t need to stand behind a check-in desk and actually physically check in.”
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Dubai International Airport’s (DXB) entire operations will be relocated to Al Maktoum International Airport, with the first phase set to commence operations in 2032. Al Maktoum Airport will be the largest airport globally when it is fully operational, with capacity reaching 260 million.
Griffiths said passenger and passport details should be captured entirely at the point of ticket purchase, with travellers simply dropping off their bags on arrival at the airport before walking straight through, aided by facial recognition and ceiling- and wall-mounted cameras that identify passengers and their flights.
On baggage handling, Griffiths questioned why the industry still relies on paper tags.
“Why, when you buy a car, it’s got a unique VIN number… that car belongs to you. Why can’t we do the same with bags? Why are we sticking in the 21st century paper tags on baggage?” he said, likening it to standing at an ATM in the rain in an age of Apple Pay and Google Pay.
He was also critical of current airport security design, questioning why passengers are asked to lift heavy bags onto conveyor belts.
“Why the conveyor belts for airport security not on the ground? So you just put your hand baggage on a moving belt, you walk through at the same time, and then just pick your bag up the other side,” he said, adding that ideally, bags would be screened while passengers keep moving.
‘Deconstructing airport experience’
“We are deconstructing the airport experience and most of the process should be done when you buy your ticket. The baggage processing we’re working on, so that your suitcase should be on that carousel before you’ve even got to it. We’ve worked very closely with GDRFA, and now, of course, we’ve got facial recognition. You don’t have to get your passport out; you just keep moving through the security process. We’re in the process of upgrading all the machinery now. You don’t have to take laptops or liquids out – another process that was horribly intrusive,” Griffiths said during the media briefing.
“If we can adopt this frictionless idea of saving people’s time and taking the inconvenience out of the entire airport process, you get so many positives. One, if you have processed people in half the time, they’re happier. They’ll spend more of the time they have available shopping, eating, drinking in the airport. If they’ve spent half the time in the same facility, you can get double the number of people through.
“You’ve got an increase of 100 per cent of your capacity without having to build anything. There are so many benefits, and the investment in the technology is a fraction of the cost of building a new terminal. We’re going to continue on that journey to make the entire process as frictionless as we can, and then we’ll roll that out at the new airport at a significant scale,” he added.
Dubai International Airport (DXB) is deploying the latest screening machinery, which will allow passengers not to take out liquids and laptops from their bags.
Rail links straight to the gate
Griffiths said Dubai Airports is in discussions with the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) and other authorities to extend similar seamless processing to rail stations connecting to the airport, allowing passengers to walk from the train directly into lounges, shops or restaurants – within 50 metres of their aircraft.
“What a fantastic experience that will be,” he said, adding that even with up to 260 million passengers eventually passing through the airport, travellers would not need to feel like they are moving through a crowd.
“Everyone can feel they’re having an intimate, personal experience, and they’ve chosen to do the things they want to do at the airport, not what the airport operator has forced you to do.”
He described the shift as “a real turnaround in treating the customer as though it’s their journey and it’s at their discretion how they use their time.”
Source: Khaleej Times