Airports have a very good understanding about the passenger numbers at each time period in various hot spots like the security screenings or border control. The airports use this data to plan the resources and work force usage throughout the day for the processes to be smooth and easy.

Providing security services is expensive. It is labor-intensive and personnel is needed throughout the day. The working hours and the salaries are not very good, which means that changes in personnel are frequent. The airport operator is in charge of providing the service so it does not matter whether the personnel is in-house or outsourced. The means of resilience like reserving excess amount of people for shifts, having excess amount of people employed, improving work shift structures or improving benefits and income would certainly help in difficult situations. Preparing for difficult situations may not be what the airports aim at, however, going the other direction with chronic under-resourcing, cannot be the target either.

How does all this appear from the customer perspective? Or in fact, who is the customer?

Airlines urging airports to save costs

The two main areas of income sources are the aeronautical revenues paid by the airlines as airport charges for the usage of the airport, and on the other hand, the non-aeronautical revenues which are paid by the passengers through shops, restaurants and other commercial service providers. Thus, the customer is both the airline and the passenger. The airlines pay for the security screenings and expect the process to be smooth. However, there are no service level agreements between the airlines and the airports. The passengers have no saying on security screening queues since they don´t pay for them directly, but through the airline in the ticket price. Legally the passenger is the airline customer.

Airlines suffer from a high cost structure. Airport charges are one of the cost items and thus the airlines are urging the airports to save costs leading to decreased airport charges. Therefore, the cost areas like security screening services are examined critically by the airports. However, if the security screening process becomes too slow it starts affecting the departure punctuality and causing passengers to miss their flights.

There is a third group that in this context can be understood as customers. Many airports are companies. Companies include owners and the boards. The corporate legislature tasks the company to make money for the owners. This is of course evident, but if we are talking about a monopolistic business, which the national main airports typically are, increasing the profits at any cost becomes questionable. Even though the airport might be competing with some other airports as a destination, it is still the only option for the local passengers to use aviation services. So, the owners have to take into consideration also the fact that airports are not in an open market.

Regulations vrs passenger experience

In the end, if the security service processes fail, the only suffering customer is the passenger. The airport can say that they did not cause the queues on purpose; it was accidental. The airlines can demand that the passengers have to be at the airport on time to reach the flight. The owners of the airport do not comment. There is no law or regulation that protects the passenger in a situation where nobody takes the responsibility.

The situation gets even worse if the airports and the airlines start blaming the passengers for the queues and missing their flights. That is exactly the point where the passenger experience is completely lost. And that is the exact point that needs actions also from the regulators.

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