Tuchen Stefan, Arora Mohit, Blessing Lucienne
SUTD-MIT International Design Centre, Singapore.
SGP-Aviation Program, Singapore University of Technology and Design, Singapore.
J Air Transp Manag. 2020 Oct;89:101919. doi: 10.1016/j.jairtraman.2020.101919. Epub 2020 Aug 27.
Given the unprecedented challenges imposed on the aviation industry by the COVID-19 pandemic, this paper proposes a new perspective on airport user experience as a field of study to unlock its potential as a basis for strategic roadmapping. Through an integrative literature review, this study points out a dominant focus, in practice and research, on customer experience and service quality, as opposed to user experience, to help airports gain a competitive edge in an increasingly commoditized industry. The review highlights several issues with this understanding of experience, as users other than passengers, such as employees, working for the airport and its myriad stakeholders, as well as visitors, are largely omitted from study. Given the complexity of the system, operationally, passengers are generally reduced to smooth flows of a passive mass, which this study argues is both a missed opportunity and a vulnerability exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Major events apart from COVID-19 are used to show the negative effects this simplification of user experience has had. Based on solutions and models proposed in previous studies, a conceptual model has been developed to illustrate the postulated potential of a deeper and more holistic study of airport user experience to make airport systems generally more agile, flexible and future-proof. As such, the paper advocates to utilize the user experience as a basis for strategic planning to equip airports with the know-how to manage not just daily operations more effectively but also the aftermath of and recovery from major events like the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, with the user experience at the center of the strategic roadmap, airports can plan ahead to mitigate the impact of future scenarios. The importance of future research and the use of existing research are discussed.
鉴于新冠疫情给航空业带来了前所未有的挑战，本文提出了一个关于机场用户体验的新视角，将其作为一个研究领域，以挖掘其潜力，作为战略路线规划的基础。通过综合文献综述，本研究指出，在实践和研究中，主要关注的是客户体验和服务质量，而非用户体验，这有助于机场在日益商品化的行业中获得竞争优势。该综述突出了这种对体验理解的几个问题，因为除乘客之外的其他用户，如为机场及其众多利益相关者工作的员工以及访客，在很大程度上被排除在研究之外。鉴于系统的复杂性，在运营方面，乘客通常被简化为被动人群的顺畅流动，本研究认为这既是一个错失的机会，也是新冠疫情加剧的一个弱点。除新冠疫情外的重大事件被用来展示这种对用户体验的简化所产生的负面影响。基于先前研究中提出的解决方案和模型，开发了一个概念模型，以说明对机场用户体验进行更深入、更全面研究的假定潜力，从而使机场系统总体上更具敏捷性、灵活性和前瞻性。因此，本文主张将用户体验作为战略规划的基础，以使机场不仅能够更有效地管理日常运营，还能应对像新冠疫情这样的重大事件的后果并从中恢复。此外，以用户体验为战略路线图的核心，机场可以提前规划，减轻未来情景的影响。文中还讨论了未来研究的重要性以及现有研究的用途。
