Airport Experience® News - Customer Service Issue 2024

PROJECT SPOTLIGHT

the mornings, so we have a lot of narrow body activity. “Then as you move into the afternoon into the evening, it becomes much more international with carriers using the wide-body aircraft. Having that flexibility on gate utilization is one of the best ways that we can take what is a relatively small footprint from a terminal perspective and maximize the throughput of the building and utilization.” The in-terminal passenger experience is front and center in the minds of JFK Millennium Partners, Thody says, beginning with a focus on natural light. “We’ve done a lot of research around how lighting and time of day affects the human body and how you start to adjust based on where you’re flying,” he says. In addition to the centerpiece oculus in the East Hall and a smaller complementary oculus in the departures lobby, the design features “lots and lots of windows throughout, allowing natural light to flood in.” Technology is also key. Plans call for touchless technology from check-in to gates and digital systems that will streamline the passenger journey throughout the terminal. Advanced security systems will include automated TSA security lanes, biometric based access control systems and a flexible design to accommodate future technology or regulatory changes.

Thody says technology will be used to “enable choice for passengers,” noting that some passengers may desire a more frictionless experience while others want personal assistance. The terminal will also be fully biometrically enabled. “We’ll work with one of the leaders in biometrics,” Thody says “If we create a biometric layer across the building, we can then plug that into the hardware, which gives us flexibility over time to change hardware to always keep up with the latest technology, without fundamentally changing everything about how it operates today.” The Concessions Plan Planning for the extensive concessions program at the new T6 is well underway. In September, JFK Millennium Partners announced the selection of Avolta companies Hudson and Dufry to open numerous duty-free, travel convenience, and specialty retail stores over more than 28,000 square feet of space in the new, state-of-the-art terminal. The Avolta companies – each of which won in separate procurements – have entered joint venture partnerships with seven ACDBE firms for the new concessions. Local firms Baked Cravings , q and Tsion Café will all partner with Dufry for the

Above: The new JFK T6 is expected to attract a mix of domestic and international travelers.

duty free offer. Sammy Patel, vice president commercial for Vantage Group says JFK Millennium Partners was “intentful in having full collaboration” in defining the duty free offer and integrating local into duty free. “We wanted to find the right business partner to work with, who can take our experience and take our vision and bring it to life in a whole different way, which has never been done before,” he says. “We had numerous meetings prior to the RFP through the RFP process” to collaborate on the vision, he says. Two New York companies - The Nourish Spot and Sullivan-Hernandez Group –

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AX NEWS OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2024