Airport Features Most Likely to Affect International Traveler Satisfaction

Abstract

The number of international travelers traveling through U.S. airports is increasing because of the proliferation of longer-range aircraft, expanding global alliances, and a growing middle class from developing nations. Each international airport has a unique design, and many international travelers experience difficulty finding their way in unfamiliar airports. The wayfinding task is made more difficult when combined with other factors such as traveler anxiety, jet lag, and unfamiliarity with the local language and culture. To understand better the challenges faced by international travelers, a literature review, a human factors task analysis, and an international traveler intercept survey were carried out to determine traveler needs, expectations, and key factors that affect traveler satisfaction with an airport. Four traveler surveys were developed and administered to different traveler groups. Surveys were administered at the eight U.S. gateway airports with the most international travelers. Some key findings were as follows: (a) all traveler groups identified easy wayfinding as being the most important airport feature, with travelers transferring between two flights rating it highest; (b) in comparison to other traveler groups, arriving travelers rated short walking distance as being much more important than other features; (c) travelers making a connection between two international flights did not expect that they would need to collect and recheck their bags while in transit; (d) travelers making a connection between two international flights had the lowest overall satisfaction as compared with the other traveler groups; and (e) only one-third of travelers making a connection between two international flights had a positive experience with the walking distance between flights.