On any typical morning at Luton the airport bustles with people rushing for flights. However the contrast with say 10 years ago or more is startling. It is the dress of the passengers.
What used to be an almost exclusively for Leisure market with loads of families and couples off to sun destinations now sees a very different crowd. The business person is now more than likely to be that group who occupies the security lines. (Not the check in lines as everyone has previously checked in if they are biz people).
Easyjet deserves a lot of the credit for this. Taking the low cost model to business markets is driving the differentiation between them and Ryanair. It is also driving greater revenue per passenger - but also greater costs. Easyjet is now deploying technology to improve the quality of the checkin process. In a story carried by ABTN, an Easyjet Spokesman commented: "We are evaluating the technology as to how it can speed up the check in process."
"It allows our staff to have more contact with passengers, providing a faster and more informative service.
"We will never get rid of check-in desks like some other airlines have done in the past," he said.
CapGemini in a recent piece on its concept of Mobile Service Partners combining to deliver services to the consumer via any mobile devices estimates that by the year 2030 almost all travel customers will use some sort of mobile Information and Communication (I&C) device to handle their travel arrangements, independent of the larger computing devices such as PCs and laptops. The formal line between the customer and the supplier provider will blur making some of these services less necessary.
Who knows maybe Ryanair will be right in the end. But for now - in the customer service stakes - Easyjet seems to have the ascendancy. So more and more of those Easyjetters will be biz folks.
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