Fewer Bottlenecks, Less Crowding at Airports

— -- For years, Jim Pancero put up with rolling bags, carts, strollers and other travelers blocking his way as he moved slowly in the lines at check-in counters at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson airport's South Terminal.

Pancero, a Minneapolis business traveler who often goes to Atlanta, is breathing a little more easily since Delta Air Lines (DAL) opened its new $26 million ticketing lobby earlier this year. An ingenious alchemy of architecture, queue management, interior design, software and logistics, the new lobby has minimized use of traditional ticket counters. In their place, Delta has clustered 106 kiosks and redeployed its workers.

The result: shorter lines, more room for passengers to roam and swifter passage to the security checkpoint at the world's busiest airport.

Delta and Hartsfield-Jackson are among about a dozen U.S. airlines and airports that have largely given up traditional ticket counters that run parallel to the terminal entryway and force passengers to queue up in long, snaking lines that allow little room to spread out.

Instead, airports are clearing out the space, setting electronic kiosks and counters at an angle to the entryway, and spreading out passengers needing to catch their planes. The chief aim is to minimize the effects of crowds by separating passengers from each other and moving them away from the congested check-in counter.

As they build or renovate, airports are also paying more attention to aesthetics and amenities that could help them become more competitive: walled-off, separate check-in areas for premium customers; higher ceilings and more windows; more retail stores after security; and wider concourse hallways.

But travelers stand the most chance of saving time and avoiding hassles in the ticketing lobbies. The airlines like the open ticketing layout because it's more efficient, requiring fewer workers to process customers. The number of full-time airline employees has been steadily shrinking in recent years, falling about 3% since 2003. Large network carriers such as Delta, in the aggregate, have cut 13% of their employees.

Travelers such as Pancero like it because ticketing and baggage-checking move faster, and he's less apt to stumble on the stray baby stroller.

"It's much more efficient," Pancero says. "You look at each process and see how it makes the whole process flow more easily."

The starting point for the Delta project at Hartsfield-Jackson was destruction of the back offices and traditional check-in counters, which stood close to the doors and didn't leave much room for customers to line up. Together, they occupied much of Delta's 50,000 square feet in the South Terminal.

With the space opened up, the architects arranged kiosks and new-style counters in three long rows. The rows are turned about 45 degrees to the entrance. Passengers are directed to the right side of the row if they need traditional counter service. Passengers are directed to the left if they favor self-service. Even there, they should find a Delta agent to check and tag their luggage. In the USA, passengers aren't allowed to tag bags themselves.

"You'd think that we added 50 feet in front of the lobby, but we didn't," says Delta executive Greg Kennedy.

Alaska Airlines (ALK) has opened up its space at Anchorage and Seattle-Tacoma. It plans to do it at Los Angeles and Boise and Alaska cities Fairbanks and Juneau. Other airlines have or will open up their ticketing and baggage-check areas at Raleigh-Durham, San Francisco, Sacramento, Dallas/Fort Worth, New York John F. Kennedy, San Jose, Calif., and Niagara Falls, N.Y.

William Hooper, an architect at San Francisco-based Gensler, the firm working on JetBlue's (JBLU) new Terminal 5 at New York John F. Kennedy, says the goal in projects like his is "redistributing people with subtlety."

Says Hooper, "We want to get people out as quickly as possible (to gates), so they can enjoy themselves."

Efficient flow emphasized

Ben Lao, an airport architect at Chicago-based Ricondo & Associates, says his firm strives for designs that keep passengers making steady progress toward their goal of making their flights.

"Airlines are emphasizing the idea of efficient flow through the terminal so that passengers don't have to backtrack," says Lao.

Some travelers, such as Gloria Golbert, a seminar presenter from East Windsor, N.J., find the increased reliance on technology worrisome. "I hope (it) does not mean that that there will be machines only and no personnel," she says. "Once, a kiosk said, 'See a gate agent,' and I couldn't find a gate agent."

But airlines say the software used in kiosks has improved over the years, and they are more reliable than they once were. Airlines also say they are more mindful about making sure that roving agents work the kiosk areas to guide travelers and address any glitches.

Electronic kiosks are gaining acceptance with travelers. About 70% of business travelers used kiosks at least once in 2007, says Forrester Research. Experienced travelers now largely prefer them to standing in lines, says Henry Harteveldt of Forrester.

Just tag the bags, please

Along with kiosks, passengers are seeing more airlines and airports creating dedicated areas just for agents to tag bags. American Airlines, for example, has created bag-tagging podiums at JFK's Terminal 8 at one end of the lobby just for those passengers arriving at the airport with a boarding pass in hand or who use self-service kiosks.

Alaska Airlines, one of the earliest U.S. airlines to open up its check-in area, has been using the system for four years at Anchorage International. The trial cut in half the average time needed to check in. It was so successful that Alaska has replicated what it calls its Airport of the Future concept at its home, Seattle-Tacoma International.

Alaska made the move recognizing that a large majority of its customers were already printing their boarding passes at home or using self-service kiosks at the airport, says Ed White, a customer service executive at Alaska.

Unveiled in October, Alaska's new check-in lobby at Sea-Tac features clusters of kiosks and bag-drop podiums that immediately greet passengers. The new design, which is being rolled out in stages to be completed by mid-2008, calls for 50 kiosks and 56 bag-drop podiums.

Passengers' options are simple. Fliers with no bags to check use one of the kiosks scattered throughout the lobby. Fliers who have printed a boarding pass at home or at a kiosk but wish to check luggage can proceed to one of the bag-drop podiums.

Alaska assigns two bag-drop podiums for each agent, which it believes shortens the check-in process.

Videos and digital signs instruct passengers to step up, place their bag on the empty belt and wait while the agent finishes tagging the bags on the other belt. This eliminates the typical 10 to 15 seconds that agents sit idle while passengers realize it's their turn and walk up to the counter, White says. "In Anchorage, it took some coaching," White says.

Passengers encountering problems at any of the steps can approach the two traditional check-in counters still available. Alaska calls them "customer service desks," a name that suggests that the passengers are expected to use the automated system.

That message is further reinforced by the location of the customer service desks: adjacent to the entrance escalators so that passengers have to turn around to find them. "For some reason, when people see lines being formed, they're naturally drawn to them," say Alaska's White. "We wanted to direct them to kiosks and bag-drop podiums."

American Airlines (AMR), the world's largest, earlier this year incorporated many of the new design concepts at its recently completed $1.3 billion terminal at New York JFK.

American's four ticketing counter rows are spaced about 30 yards apart, giving ample space for people to move about.

They are also turned 90 degrees to the entrance doors and run more than half the length of the terminal. But they are placed back far enough from the doors so that people can congregate in the front part of the lobby without mixing with those in line.

Natural light that floods in through the floor-to-ceiling glass facade lend the lobby an open feel, akin to a train central station.

"In many terminals, you walk in and almost panic," says Laura Einspanier of American Airlines. "When we designed (our terminal), we wanted (it) so that passengers don't walk in and become overwhelmed."

Premium fliers get their privacy

American Airlines' original plan for its JFK terminal renovation, which was drawn in the late 1990s, called for 105 agents behind counters and no kiosks. But the final plan cut that down to 84 counter positions to make room for 44 kiosks.

American also built a walled-off check-in area, complete with soft chairs and tables, for premium passengers so that they're not affected by the crowds in the rest of the lobby.

The new Terminal 5 that JetBlue is building at JFK also emphasizes crowd separation.

When it opens in 2008, the kiosk islands will be placed on each side of a huge consolidated security checkpoint. And passengers who have no need to see airline agents will be able to proceed directly to security without running into others in the lobby.

In 2006, U.S. airports spent more than $9 billion in construction and renovation, according to the Airport Council International-North America. And U.S. travelers can expect to see more airports with similar changes that aim to process them faster, says Stanis Smith, an architect at Stantec, the firm that designed Niagara Falls International's new terminal.

"Technology is changing the way people use airports and the way airports are designed," he says. "The exciting part of it is that it is liberating the traveler experience and is leading to more intuitive, friendlier and more enjoyable experience. Through good design, airports can become a place people enjoy."

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