Document Type

Article

Publication Date

5-1-2003

Abstract

Airport managers tend to view airport efficiency through the lens of their own experience based on measurements of travelers' interactions with the airline after the traveler has entered the airport process. They ignore the times when the traveler is not empirically measurable, for example, the period between arrival at the airport and checks-in with the airline, and therefore miss important insight into how travelers cope with uncertainty and anxiety of the airport experience. In this paper, the author, an Airline Executive, suggests that ethnographic studies based on the techniques of rich observation, note-taking, coding, and inductive analysis will be a useful complement to airline/airport measures because ethnography can focus on travelers' behaviors from the travelers' point-of-view. Airport studies based on ethnographic studies should contain richer, more behaviorally complex and more customer-centric insights, leading to better, comprehensive problem identification and process redesign.

Keywords

airports

Rights

© The Author(s). Kelvin Smith Library provides access for non-commercial, personal, or research use only. All other use, including but not limited to commercial or scholarly reproductions, redistribution, publication or transmission, whether by electronic means or otherwise, without prior written permission is strictly prohibited.

Department/Center

Design & Innovation

Share

COinS
 
 

To view the content in your browser, please download Adobe Reader or, alternately,
you may Download the file to your hard drive.

NOTE: The latest versions of Adobe Reader do not support viewing PDF files within Firefox on Mac OS and if you are using a modern (Intel) Mac, there is no official plugin for viewing PDF files within the browser window.