1 ABSTRACT This coursework discusses the control of the airline and the air passenger travelling experience on the ground in a point-to-point domestic flight. It also takes into consideration other factors that are not directly controlled by an airline that have a major impact on the passenger journey experience.

INTRODUCTION Airlines, airports, handling agents, government authorities and technology providers constantly have to work together to develop a speeder airport by simplifying passenger travel experience and reducing their travelling time. Some major programmes have been developed: the SPT” Simplifying Passenger travel program” from ACI and “Fast Travel program” from IATA. Travel processes for passenger have been simplified by the introduction of new technology (Haridasani, 2011): -Self check-in kiosk, (where passenger are not using the check-in desk); check-in online (passenger are printing their boarding card at home); mobile check-in, and the next generation check-in using the RFID technology (without the need of a boarding card, simply swiping the card in the kiosk reader from the check-in until the boarding gate) - Self-service Bag drop machine , which has been adopted at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport, where passenger scan their boarding pass on a reader, enabling them to take charge of tagging their bags the luggage system is automated and sends their bag directly on the convey belt for loading

DISCUSSION The table below illustrates the control of the airline and airport operators on the ground for domestic travellers. In comparison to longer flight, passengers are not subject to immigration process (in which case the presentation of a photographic identification to check-in is sufficient).  Getting to and from the airport Airport operator DfT/TfL/Commercial operators -on-site car parking -transfer to/from parking -Different modes of transport to/from airport

 Through the airport and taking off and landing Outbound Airline -Check-in staff ,sometimes handled from GHA -Passenger gate boarding Inbound -Landing (also controlled by NATS) -Taxing to stand(also controlled by NATS)

2 -Push back from stand, taxing to runway and take-off (also controlled from NATS) -Baggage handling -Unloading aircraft -Landing, taxing to stand (also controlled from NATS) -Disembark -Unloading of the aircraft (baggage and cargo) -Baggage reclaim system Infrastructure -Arrivals hall and surface access connections

Airport operators

- Check-in facilities desks -Bag-drop facilities -Security search area -Retail -Way-finding and flight information screens -En-route passenger facilities to the departure lounge -Baggage belt system infrastructure

HM Revenue & customs

-Customs control

In analysing the passenger journey time, one notice that most of the journey phases are not controlled directly by an airline, and have a major impact on passengers’ experience about “time wasted in their journey”, nowadays some delay are present due to: congested airport (lack of terminal and runway capacity), lack of investment in technologies from airport and airlines, and long security queues. Security rules are a large part of the cause of the increase of the overall journey time, in a research by Euro-control (De Clercq G,2009),”on the percentage of flights delayed at the top 5 airports in Europe experiencing the level of delays due to security check are 5-12%, due to departure gates and boarding 5-8% “,the result of this might be the increase of amount of hand baggage being taken onto an aircraft from passenger travelling in domestic flights to avoid waiting at baggage reclaim and the strictness of the Security checks . However, an improvement in the security queue is expected, new CAA regulation (2011), imposes a strict targets about the length of security queues for Heathrow and Gatwick airport : two targets are set stating that “queuing time should be no more than 5 minutes for 95% of occasions sampled and less than 10 minutes on 99% of occasions sampled ”.The airports are required to report data to the CAA measuring their performance ,and the airports are forced to pay penalty payments to airlines if these targets are not met. According to a study carried out by Telegraph travel (Smith, 2011),despite the increase cost of the air tickets due to a rise of APD (domestic flight taxes increase from £5 to £12 per person) and also the introduction of the EU Emission trading scheme and rising oil price, “air fares are cheaper than rail fares on half of Britain’s 10 most popular domestic routes”, However, a tendency from passenger to lower the cost of their tickets is compensated by the choice of a “low cost airline” instead. Also, the price of train fares will be affected and will be increased by an average of 8% in January 2012.Some fares could increase by as much as 13%.

3 These factors play an important role in influencing the passenger’s choice when considering which form of transport to use to reach their destination: - travelling time - schedule and frequency - ticket fare cost -cost of transport (taxi, private car, etc…) to/from airport or station -convenient access to airport or station -car park facilities -using environmentally friendly transport services A research study by Cokasova A.,the business passenger have a tendency to give more importance to travel time, comparing to leisure passenger who are more focused on ticket price. Both types of passenger consider access to the airport or station to be important.

CONSIDERATION Generally speaking, travelling by air is making the journey shorter, however a high demand for travelling by rail is present because train stations are located in the town city centre, therefore passenger are avoiding transport to/from the airport and they can arrive easily few minutes before travelling (no security check required). Airports are becoming more congested and competition is rising between air and rail transportation. In order to analyse some points of discussion, one of the most popular domestic route has been analysed: London to Edinburgh (distance in Km 534.19) Warren J. (2007) compared the flight journey time between Edinburgh to London via: -Gatwick: 4 hours, 5 minutes -London city: 3hours, 25 minutes -London Luton: 4hours, 13 minutes -Heathrow: 3hours, 42 minutes (p.18) with 40 flights a day to and from

The table below represent the shortest and the longest journey from LHR, Warren J. (2007): Shortest journey Rail Air 4h20 3h25 Normal journey 4h40 3h42 Longest journey 5h15 4h13

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The table below are shows some comparative figures of air vs. train fare. An example of a booking enquiry was made for a return economy journey between London and Edinburgh. Fares were collected on 24/11/2011, four days and two months in advance before the travel date (weekdays) with return travel three days later. For obvious reasons the lowest fare price has been picked. Travelling dates Air Fare * Carrier: BMI Air Fare ** Carrier: British airways £177.17 £109.17 Rail Fare ***

28/11-30/11 /2011 23/01-25/01/2012

£ 72.00 £ 72.00

£114.60 £43.60

*Flight operated from London Heathrow (fare collected from www.opodo.com) **Flight operated from London City Airport (fare collected from www.britishairways.com) ***Connection link operated by East Coast railway, from London Kings Cross Station (fare collected from www.raileasy.co.uk) Considering the journey from London Heathrow, Warren J (2007), estimated the journey time on this route: Edinburgh to London via Heathrow (normal journey, 3hours, 42 minutes)

City Centre  Edinburgh Airport

35 min (FlyByBus.com express shuttle, +10 minutes to wait for The bus and then walk to the terminal)

Through security Gate Edinburgh Heathrow Disembark & walk to terminal area Walk to Heathrow Express Wait for next train Heathrow Paddington

50 min (1 hour the minimum suggested from BAA security) 80 min flight time (British Airways website) 25 min Estimated time (including opening door) 10min (Heathrow Express website) 7min Median wait, as trains run every 15 minutes 15min Heathrow Express website

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In the above tables there are some advantages and disadvantages to travel that have been noticed:  Between London City Airport and London Heathrow: LHR has higher frequency of flights with a lower fare  Between rail and air transport : going by air via LHR saves a passenger 58 minutes in journey time (refers to an estimation of the normal journey) and saves £ 42.60 on the fare ticket (booking four days in advance).We notice that there is a saving on rail fare of £ 28.40(booking two month in advance).Using a last minute booking shows a higher price in regard to the rail fare. CONCLUSION My own conclusion agrees with Jenny Dawe (2011), the leader of Edinburgh city council, who stated that “air travel remains the better way of transport between Edinburgh and London. The evidence suggests that the modal shift from air to rail travel will only become significant once journey times are reduced to under three hours”, because at present between London and Edinburgh, there is not a high speed rail connection, rail is offering longer journey comparing to airlines where not much competition is present. However, the government is proposing to open a new high- speed line in 2026 that will cause the journey time between London and Edinburgh to be reduced by one hour quicker. Considering the distance between LHR and Edinburgh is 534.19KMs, if the distance is between 4001200 Km, there is competition between high speed rail and air (Stewart, 2010).If high speed rail was constructed, some futuristic planning from IATA Fast travel initiative (Fyfe, 2011), of new technology that will be introduced which will make air journey to become the first choice amongst any other form of transport: • “Checkpoint of the future”, passengers going through security checkpoints without stopping, stripping, separating liquids, etc… • Self-service channel such as a kiosk for: flight re-booking (allowing passenger to re-book themselves in case of delays or cancellations) and for bag recovery (allowing passenger to report a missing bag) • Self-boarding: allowing passengers to self-scan their boarding document using automated boarding gates

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REFERENCES:
- CAA (2011), CAA Requires Changes to Security Queue Measurement at Heathrow and Gatwick, http://www.caa.co.uk/application.aspx?catid=14&pagetype=65&appid=7&mode=detail&nid=2046 - Cokasova A., EUROCONTROL, Passenger movement simulation in intermodal air-rail terminal, https://www.eurocontrol.int/eec/gallery/content/public/documents/EEC_INO_documents/INO_wor kshop_2005/Papers/11_A_Cokasova_Air_Rail_multimodal_PAX.pdf. Antonia, P.5 - Dave J. (Jan 2011), Guardian Edinburgh article written by: Mac Leod M, Plea to save Edinburgh’s high speed rail bid, http://www.guardian.co.uk/edinburgh/2011/jan/18/edinburgh-high-speedrail-london - De Clercq G., EUROCONTROL (2009) Impact Study of Landside Elements on Airport Capacity and Delays, http://www.eurocontrol.int/airports/gallery/content/public/pdf/Impact_study_landside_elements_ on_airportCapacity_Delays.d%E2%80%A6.pdf , P.6 Edition1.0 -Fyfe R. (October 2011), IATA board member, World passenger symposium, http//www.iata.org/events/pax; P. 8 - Haridasani A., (2011), Five new technologies that enhance the airport experience,http://www.businesstravellerme.com/asia-pacific/news/five-new-technologies-thatenhance-the-airport - Smith Oliver (Oct 2010),Domestic flights cut by a fifth, Recession and a rise in Air Passenger Duty are being blamed for falling passenger numbers. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/travelnews/8065918/Domestic-flights-cut-by-a-fifth.html - Smith Oliver (Apr 2011), Planes cheaper than trains on half of popular domestic routes, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/travelnews/8453103/Planes-cheaper-than-trains-on-half-ofpopular-domestic-routes.html - Stewart J. (2010), High speed rail enquiry, http://www.hacan.org.uk/resources/reports/hacan.evidence.on.high.speed.rail.pdf - Warren J. (Nov 2007), Transform Scotland, The railways mean business, http://www. transformscotland.org.uk/GetFile.aspx?itemld=37, P. 17/47/48

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RESEARCH DOCUMENTS:
- Airport Council International (2007), Simplifying passenger travel, www.spt.aero - Civil Aviation Authority (Jan 2008), recent trends in growth of UK air passenger demand “increases in the cost of air travel” - Civil Aviation Authority (2008), competition with other modes of transport, “recent trends in growth of UK air passenger demand” - Department for transport (2009), improving the Air Passenger Experience An analysis of end-to-end journey with a focus on Heathrow http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/+/http://www.dft.gov.uk/about/strategy/transportstrate gy/tasts/userexperience/434511/ - IATA (June 2011), IATA reveals Checkpoint of the future, press releases no.:35 http://www.iata.org/pressroom/pr/pages/2011-06-07-01.aspx