Airport Experience® News - Customer Service Issue 2024

DIRECTOR’S CHAIR

Above: Traditionally reliant mainly on business travel, SJC hasn’t fully recovered from the pandemic.

Left: With passenger traffic declining, executives at SJC have decided to postpone an expansion plan and instead focus on making sure existing facilities are in top shape.

WARD: How has SJC fared – in terms of passenger numbers – in the post-pandemic environment. PATEL: The economy is changing, and the travel landscape has fundamentally shifted since Covid. Business travelers are back, but they are taking fewer trips in the post pandemic world. We are working hard with our air service development team to better understand the current travel landscape and how we can meet travelers’ demands in this new environment. One example of the shift has been the rapid entry and growth of ULCCs into our airport. In early 2020, we had no domestic ULCC service. Volaris was our fastest-growing airline during the pandemic – the only one that actually added capacity during those tough years. Just this year, Frontier Airlines returned to SJC with five daily nonstops; Spirit Airlines added a twice-daily nonstop route to Hollywood Burbank Airport (BUR), just one year after the airline began operations in San José. The new service has

brought Spirit’s total peak daily departures to 13, representing 150% growth since its inaugural SJC flight on June 7, 2023. ANA suspended its nonstop SJC-Tokyo flight since the pandemic, but Zipair – JAL’s low-cost subsidiary, was quick to fill the void; Zipair now carries more passengers between San José and Japan than ANA did. So, it’s lots of change, but we’re working hard to adapt to the new reality. WARD: Are you partnering with community organizations to shore up travel and ensure local companies use SJC? PATEL: We have a small marketing team, and they do a tremendous job of building relationships in our community. We partner with several local chambers of commerce, Team San José, who runs our city’s destination marketing organization, and multiple other organizations. We’re out in the community. Currently, we have a campaign around our 75th anniversary so we’ve got a lot of swag that has helped build strong affinity across our community.

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AX NEWS OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2024