Airport Experience® News - Customer Service Issue 2023

Left: Roddy McOwan, chief development officer at WH Smith North America, says he believes data sharing can be helpful for all parties, but cautions about the need to protect customer information from hackers.

Left: Pat Murray, deputy CEO at SSP America, says that while data sharing can be helpful, it needs to be handled safely and parsed responsibly once in an airport’s hands.

technological innovation one of five major disruptors that will cause the airport industry to evolve in the future – and adds that its data sharing that will maximize such innovation. “The enormous potential of technology will not be realized without alignment and collaboration between regulators and the industry on data sharing,” the company wrote. “Maximizing the value of new technologies requires airports, regulators and other members of the travel ecosystem to design and operate according to open architecture that allows seamless data sharing across multiple stakeholders, while maintaining safety and security.” Not Without Concerns While nearly all stakeholders are aware of the desire and push for greater sharing of data, the topic brings with it some reservations. Concession operators, consultants and other stakeholders have mixed feelings. Some don’t mind the idea of sharing data but would like to exercise some control over how the data is transferred. Others want to make sure that their sharing data comes with some benefits in the end. “We have no problem in data sharing with any of our clients in the grand scheme of things and, in fact, all stakeholders should be vested in doing so to help improve the overall customer experience,” says Roddy McOwan, chief development officer at WH Smith North America , which is comprised of Marshall Retail Group and InMotion. Such sharing of profit and loss information at certain agreed upon times, he says, helps all sides understand the impact of airline movements, consumer buying habits, trends, competitive activity and the ongoing ability of the operator to achieve or exceed projections.

On the cautionary side, McOwan notes that sharing directly from point-of-sale systems to airport IT departments creates the possibility of security or data breaches. “I personally believe there are other methodologies for reporting information in a more controlled manner without risk of access by third parties or hackers,” he says. McOwan would also like to get a couple things in return. First, he’s found it difficult to get from airports historical sales data during an RFP process – which he says dilutes competition and creates a benefit for incumbent operators “which does not set an RFP process up for transparency or success.” Seeking In Return … As these data sharing requests evolve, McOwan would also like to see the industry adopt a uniform process. “It would be great if the airports could adopt a standard around the minimum data elements required, the format and the method of delivery of reporting data,” he says. “We end up recreating essentially the same data for each airport in a different format.” Stu Holcombe, founder of Travel Retail Partners , says he loves data and finds it useful, for example, in helping specialty retailers make sure their locations are or will get enough foot traffic to justify a store. When it comes to sharing it with airports, he’s open-minded, but also a bit skeptical. “The real question that comes to me is they’ve never really clarified why,” he says. “What is it that we want to do and what do you want my data for and how am I going to help you engage customers. To me that’s an unknown.” Airports, he adds, in many cases already have the capability of gathering a lot of useful customer data on their own using beacons and other technologies -

investments many made years ago. Yet, on the other hand, there is data the airport is collecting that it won’t share with partners. “They can’t tell me right now how many people are going into airline clubs and third-party clubs,” Holcombe says. “Yet the information is there. It seems to be a one-way drive and not a sharing.” Pat Murray, deputy CEO at SSP America, says it’s a complex issue. All passenger data, he says, has some value from a commercial standpoint and, much like airlines don’t want consumer information shared, concessionaires want to have control over how their data is used. He agreed with others’ concerns about the security of data as it’s transmitted and wondering what is going to happen with the data once the airport has it. Customer information, he says, must be protected. “Once you’ve provided the data, that’s the scary part,” he says. “If you’re American or Delta, you don’t want the competitor to have all that information. So, how could the airport get the information and agree to only bifurcate it or segregate it in some capacity?” Van Beek, from Steer, agreed the process of data sharing needs to benefit all parties. And PHX officials, who provided written answers to questions, agreed the data being shared should be transparently agreed upon and useful. PHX is in the early stages of negotiating specifics with tenants on how to implement the sharing efforts. But Shelbrack adds that data is or has in the past been used to provide weekly passenger forecasts to retail operators so they can plan staffing and for analyzing passenger flow from the curb to gates so the airlines can plan load balance where possible and improve efficiencies. “Data sharing will allow us to work with our operators to meet our customers’ expectations,” she says.

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AX NEWS CUSTOMER SERVICE ISSUE 2023