Manchester’s Customer-Driven Strategy
‘Customer-focused investment’ is central to Manchester Airport Group’s long-term strategy. Louise Driscoll interviewed Geoff Muirhead, Manchester Airport Group’s chairman and Andrew Harrison, Manchester Airport’s Commercial Director on how the latest £80million redevelopment across all three terminals places the customer at the top of their agenda.
The recently-completed overhaul of Manchester’s Terminal 1 to provide new, improved security and airside shopping facilities and the existing works to Terminal 2’s security and retail areas – to finish by the end of the summer – is the result of a lengthy consultative process that has been driven by extensive customer research.
This specifically involved psychological studies into passengers’ different mindsets, explained Harrison. “As well as responding to customer needs, it’s been a massive collaborative effort with Milligan, with whom we are in the final year of a five-year partnership. They helped us to develop our five-year plan.”
The outcome, he said, has enabled Manchester to deliver its key objectives – to build on its own experience, while bringing in Milligan’s expertise in managing and developing niche shopping centres tailored to specific customer needs.
Manchester’s latest terminal developments to enhance the passenger experience also reflect the wider strategy across the Group. Muirhead said: “We believe that sensible, customer-focused investment such as the new security technologies and redeveloped terminals makes MAG and our partners well placed to take advantage when economic recovery occurs.”
This strategy is also key to the sustainable growth across the group’s airports, he explained. “We will continue to invest in improving the customer experience. Our objective for the redevelopment projects is to make the customer journey easy.”
Terminal 1
Now fully complete, the airport’s latest major project in Terminal 1 has involved transferring the landside shopping facilities to arrivals. This has enabled passengers to breeze straight through to security, creating more than double the amount of retail space in the security area, explained Harrison.
The project has been designed to improve passenger flow as well as enhance the passenger experience. “A new airside shopping area has been zoned in a way which makes sense to our customers,” said Harrison. Each zone has been named to best fit the shopping experience passengers can expect.
The first zone, ‘Reassurance’, is designed for passengers who have just passed through security. “It’s about the first thing you need to buy before you get to your plane, such as grabbing a coffee or foreign exchange,” explained Harrison.
The second zone, ‘Desire’ is based around the airport’s tax and duty free offer. “A key change was getting our retailers to raise their game. WDF (World Duty Free) designed a new retail concept – ‘Biza’ – which moves away from tax and duty free shops and instead, creates a department store feel.”
The third zone, ‘Explore’, is for passengers with time to browse and offers a wider mix of retail offers. Stores proving particularly popular include Kurt Geiger, Fat Face, and JD Sports, he said.
The final zone, ‘Relax’, concentrates on meeting passengers’ diverse catering needs. “It’s designed to anchor the terminal, allowing passengers to wait for their flight either in a coffee outlet or enjoying table service.”
Terminal 2
Works to the security and retail areas in Terminal 2 are nearing completion. Improving the passenger experience at the security checkpoint has been an integral part of the scheme, explained Harrison. Check-in has been moved upstairs and into the security area, creating a calmer atmosphere, he said. “Both the operations and retail teams have been working together to find the right location for security. From a retail point of view, it needs to look and feel part of the airport and the operations team have tried to make sure it works well and feels efficient.”
The project is continuing to drive efficiences for passengers. “Security was once squeezed into where we could fit it. By purpose-building this space we are getting 95% of passengers through security in eight minutes or less. And we have doubled the number of security search lanes in Terminals 1 & 2,” said Harrison. “It has also allowed us to reclaim one of our landside concourses, giving more space airside.”
Investments in catering have also doubled the amount of space airside.
Continuous Investment
The investment never ends, said Harrison, who described the rolling programme to ensure the areas that customers feel are most important are developed. “We will be looking at our Wi-Fi offer and business services as part of our consistent rolling programme, which keeps us focused on meeting basic needs, while at the same time, innovating work streams and looking at how we can continue to move forward in raising the bar at the airport,” he said. “The next stage will be to look at all the terminals and where we think we need capacity in future, depending on how quickly the market rebounds. We need to understand what our customers and airlines are looking for. A continuous focus is important as their needs will change.
Five-Year Framework Agreement
Manchester Airports Group (MAG) recetly appointed Scott Wilson to a five-year framework agreement; Scott Wilson first worked with MAG 20 years ago. The contract win is the result of a successful collaborative exercise during the bidding process where both parties were able to show they could work effectively together, explained Andrew Evans, Scott Wilson’s technical director. “The framework agreement covers two elements, civil and structural, where the airport has a continuous programme of upgrading its buildings. We are also providing airfield engineering services – specifically making sure the aircraft pavements continue to be maintained and where necessary expanded,” he said. The scope of the agreement is broad and ongoing, he said, hinting at some of the projects ahead. “We have been looking specifically at Runway 1 at Manchester and the issue of accomodating larger aicraft will also come into the framework consultancy at East Midlands and Manchester airports.”