Travel Parking

Only to discover an amazing seafood bar right next to your gate?

TripAdvisor’s staff must have felt that pain, too.

Something like that, anyway, must have inspired those indefatigable travel archivists to launch dedicated pages highlighting the attractions and amenities in 200 major airports worldwide.

«Over 3.1 billion travelers pass through airports each year, with the average traveler spending 150 minutes of airport ‘dwell time’ between arriving at the terminal to the doors of the plane closing at the gate,» says Adam Medros, TripAdvisor’s senior vice president, global product.

«We want to help them quickly find things to do on the site while they’re waiting to catch a flight, or book an airport hotel when they need a place to stay.»

The travel booking and review website says its airport pages will allow users to rate restaurants, hotels, attractions, duty free stores, boutiques and lounges while also giving them the ability to find the cheapest flights to that airport.

 Changi airport is the first.

Pages for a total of 200 airports are planned, with New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport and London Heathrow Airport launching in July.

Source: CNN on line

This years’ judging panel for the ACI EUROPE Best Airport Awards was drawn from a well-respected group of independent experts including EUROCONTROL, European Commission, European Civil Aviation Conference (ECAC), European Travel Commission (ETC) and Air Transport World. ACI EUROPE counts over 450 airports in 45 European countries among its membership and this year’s competition saw a high level of entries in the competition in each category.
The Awards* cover 4 categories of airport and aims to recognise achievement in core activities such as customer service, facilities, retail, security, community relations and environmental awareness and operations.
The first award, recognising airports in the ‘under 5 million passenger’ category, went to London City Airport. The judges awarded the prize to the airport for its investments in key areas to reduce passenger-waiting time in the airport, its ability to develop long-term strategic relationships with airline partners and its commitment to environmental awareness.
Cork Airport and Tallinn International Airport were highly commended in the ‘under 5 million passenger’ category.
The winner of the ‘5-10 million passenger’ category was Cologne-Bonn Airport. The judges were particularly impressed by the airport’s innovation in customer experience, high degree of environmental action as well as its strong relationship with the local community.
The highly commended airports in the ‘5-10 million passenger’ category were Budapest Airport and Glasgow Airport.
This year’s award in the ‘10-25 million passenger’ category went to MilanMalpensa Airport. The airport won praise from the judges for its new infrastructure and enhanced services to boost passenger experience.
The highly commended airports in the ’10-25 million passenger’ category were Hamburg Airport and Brussels Airport Company.
And in the category for airports with ‘over 25 million passengers’, this year’s ACI EUROPE Best Airport Award went to London Heathrow Airport. The judges singled it out for its success in opening the Queen’s Terminal last year, its integration of facilitation operations of passengers with reduced mobility and the advanced features it has supported in air traffic management, enhancing the airport’s performance.
The highly commended airports in the ‘over 25 million passenger’ category were Amsterdam Airport Schiphol and Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas Airport.
Source: Press release ACI Europe.

En la 25 Asamblea de ACI Europa que está teniendo lugar en Praga, se ha puesto de manifiesto por su Director General Olivier Jancovech que desde el año 2.013 los ingresos de aeropuertos provenientes de actividades comerciales cómo tiendas, restauración, aparcamientos, arrendamientos de terrenos y publicidad están teniendo una progresivo descenso. De hecho, apuntó, los ingresos comerciales por pasajero presentan una caída en torno al 4% mucho mayor que la caída que también presentan los ingresos aeronáuticos.
Las razones señaladas son una combinación de factores, entre ellos la madurez del mercado, los cambios en el comportamiento del consumidor, la competencia de las tiendas on line, las opciones de aparcamiento fuera de los recintos aeroportuarios y las restrictivas regulaciones del equipaje de cabina en los aviones.
Lógicamente, expresó que ésta situación amenaza el modelo financiero de los aeropuertos ya que los costes de las infraestructuras aeroportuarias, y su desarrollo, no están siendo cubiertos por las dos vías de ingresos aeronáuticos y comerciales. En Europa, el crecimiento de las aerolíneas en 2014 ha venido por un aumento de las de bajo coste y por aerolíneas no europeas en su intento de penetración en éste mercado. Estos desarrollos del mercado están dando lugar a una mayor concentración de tráfico aéreo, con un menor número de nuevas rutas y  aeropuertos regionales más pequeños con un riesgo de perdida de conectividad. El campo de batalla son aeropuertos muy grandes y hubs.
El panorama para el tráfico aéreo es positivo, se señaló. En el año 2014 el tráfico aéreo superó significativamente el crecimiento económico en toda Europa y los aeropuertos europeos acogieron un 160 millones más de pasajeros respecto al año anterior. Esto dio lugar al mayor volumen de pasajeros nunca visto con 1,82 millones de pasajeros que transitaron por los aeropuertos.
Fuente: Europe’s airports: Changing traffic & financials, intensified competition. Direction Media & Communications ACI Europe.