Page 110 - AA 2018_11

CABIN PRESSURE Better connected
JOHN WALTON
@thatjohn
Airports and airlines work together to improve connecting time – and experience

the overnight westbound long hauls
from Asian cities that are favourite
connections to secondary European
destinations for many Australian
travellers. As the aircraft are en route,
operations systems calculate which
aircraft have the highest number of
connecting passengers with the tightest
connections, and sequence arrivals
so that these aircraft touch down in
Helsinki first.
Other airports aren’t as successful.
In some four decades of regular
international travel, your author is
fortunate enough to have only had
bags delayed twice: both at Frankfurt
on Lufthansa connections, where the
Finnair’s hub at Helsinki is hether it’s Qatar Airways’ At first glance, a low minimum sprawling airport, inefficient layout and
always in the vanguard of marathon from Auckland connection time is a plus: very few problematic operations do not make for
using technology to improve to Doha, Qantas’s latest people think “oh, yes, I’d love to a swift connection.
operations and the passenger Wfrom Perth to London, or spend an extra hour in an Australia’s major international
experience. finavia Singapore Airlines’ shortly-to-resume indistinguishable terminal building airports, for their part, often see their
Newark-Changi route, ultra long-haul in the middle of the night”. domestic and international terminals
flying is seeing a renaissance. But it’s a poor passenger experience on different sides of their precincts as
But there’s pushback from some for flyers to have to rush between the result of legacy airline separation.
passengers, airlines and airports, with arrival and departure gates, costs Most recently, Qantas and Perth
the good old connecting flight looking money to delay planes, and costs Airport have been at loggerheads
a little more popular and seeing more to have to reroute or overnight over the airline’s desire to operate
some passenger experience – and misconnecting passengers. further international flights from its
technological – improvements. One complicating issue is that previously domestic terminal rather
For a start, not all passengers want few airlines or flight search engines than requiring a cross-airport ground
to sit on the same plane for the best allow passengers to adjust the transfer.
part of a day. Even the numerous cabin minimum connection time when An increasing number of airlines
benefits of latest-generation Airbus looking for flights either. That desire are trying to make the experience
A350 and Boeing 787 aircraft – lower could come from many sources, better, however, employing connection
cabin altitude, higher humidity, bigger whether that’s because a passenger managers to take a strategic look at
windows for more light – don’t change has been burned before by short the flows of transferring passengers,
the fact that flying for that long takes a connections, wants to sit down and adding self-service kiosks to manage
toll on the body. have a proper meal in the terminal, the surge as 500 passengers turn up at
There’s also the financial aspect. fancies visiting the lounge, needs a connections at once, and adding new
Burning fuel to carry fuel is expensive, shower mid-route, or because they options to spirit passengers to their
and airlines want to charge a premium are unfamiliar travellers, have connections.
for nonstop flights, but with the relative mobility issues or just don’t want Quite a few carriers now offer gate-
rarity and unique characteristics of these to rush. to-gate car transfers, with passengers
ultra-ultra-long-haul nonstops, there just It seems like a missed trick not to for particular flights pulled aside at
aren’t enough data points yet to be able make this option more widely available: the gate as they deplane. Like the free
‘It seems to determine just how much the various it makes for happier passengers, less hotel overnight on longer transits,
chauffeured connections started out
costly operations and raises spend in
segments of passengers are willing to pay
like a missed to save two hours out of 20 compared airports, where non-aviation revenue is as a luxury car perk to help their most
frequent flyers make their connections,
a key part of the equation.
with attractive stopover options.
trick not hours. Airlines have seen downward are working hard to maintain a low but are now expanding into small vans
Some airports and airlines, though,
And it may just be that couple of
for larger groups of passengers.
to make pressure on the minimum connection minimum connecting time while also experience from premium cabins into
This type of trickle-down passenger
times at their hub airports from flight
operating efficiently in the interest of
this option search engines, which display first passengers too. economy is one of those rare unicorns
of aviation.
Finnair’s hub at Helsinki is always
based on price and second on time.
more widely If an Australia-Europe flight takes 15 in the vanguard of using technology to benefit currently enjoyed by business
What might be the next connection
improve operations and the passenger
minutes less because the connecting
available.’ airport is more efficient, it will appear experience of its arriving flights during and first class passengers to be rolled
its banking rush hours, particularly on
higher up the list.
out more widely?
110 AUSTRALIAN AVIATION