#Industry News
New Project - Geneva Airport
Making airports safe and flexible
Airports often require flexible layouts. In all airports there are large open plan spaces where people are being moved through and information is being displayed. Requirements for security change faster than spaces can be re-designed and as policies for each airline dictate differing solutions which some airports find hard to provide. As in any high throughput venue there is a need for flexible first aid facilities - and with the stresses of travel airports see their fair share of medical incidents. As more and more of us are making use of low cost airlines, airports are having to provide facilities to enable high turnaround as reducing time spent on tarmac is one of the major ways that airlines are able to provide such competitive fares. The best way to do this is to pre-board passengers so that they are ready and waiting to board the plane once the doors are opened. Most airports use the jetty, or a stairwell to funnel people into post check-in and pre-boarding, but some gates do not have a layout that facilitates this and as a result bottlenecks occur, planes miss their slots, airlines get charged fees which eventually get passed back to the passengers who themselves will be on a delayed flight.
With all the fluctuations and varying demands, airports need to balance the ability to provide an efficient service to the airlines with a safe and pleasurable experience for the passengers, together with a means of generating revenue for their retail outlets. Printed KwickScreens are able to provide a unique solution to all these needs and are therefore receiving interest from airports worldwide.
Geneva airport has a requirement to provide a segregated security room at the gate for passengers flying with United Airline. The layout of the gate did not accommodate for this and building such a facility would cost too much and take up otherwise valuable space. To solve this need for a flexible security zone 5 printed KwickScreens were purchased, printed with subtle branding of the airport so as not to look out of place.
Geneva Airport’s Duty Terminal Manager Eric Cruz then realised that the same solution could be used at their gates where there was no pre-boarding facility for easyJet passengers. A further 4 screens were subsequently bought and are being used to pre-board passengers at the gate, preventing planes being delayed by bottlenecks at check in, and helping to minimise turnaround times for easyJet. Like the screens used for security, these screens are double sided printed with the airport’s logo to create subtle partitions. These screens create delineated zones for passengers who have checked in. The 4 screens can be wheeled across the terminal to create these partitioned zones at each gate whenever required. In Geneva, there are 8 gates in their central hub terminal and any two can have passengers boarding planes at any time. It is therefore often the case that 2 pre-boarding zones are being created at any one time.
So next time you’re returning from skiing and it’s Geneva you’re fleeing, check out the gate where you won’t be late - it might be using our portable screens to flex its space.
