Skift Travel News Blog

Centralny Port Komunikacyjny (CPK) has unveiled the Foster + Partners and Buro Happold designed concept art for Poland’s new “mega airport,” railway station, and all-around transport hub outside of Warsaw.

The newly released designs showcase the proposed terminal, a new railway station and public transport interchange, with the central element of the concept being the building’s atrium, which has been designed to “connect the transfer space for passengers of the airport, railway station and bus station under one roof.”

The new terminal is set to occupy an area of approx, 400,00sqm and will be spread across two levels, which according to CPK, will feature traditional check-in points, along with self-service check-in desks and self-bag drop kiosks with biometric capabilities.

The proposed railway station will not only serve the airport, but is also set to act as a nationwide transport hub, with six underground platforms serving regional and long distance services.

The first phase of the airport – two parallel runways and the infrastructure to handle 40 million passengers – is set to be completed by 2028.

CPK have also released a video outlining the concept design for the new airport, which you can can take a look at below:

At Skift, we are looking to unearth the most creative and forward-thinking innovations in travel through our Skift Ideas Franchise, which includes the Skift IDEA Awards, Skift Editorial Hub and the Skift Ideas Podcast.

You can listen and subscribe to the Skift Ideas Podcast through your favorite podcast app here.

Dublin Airport has released a new advice guide to support senior travelers when preparing to visit the airport during the busy summer months. 

Dublin Airport operator DAA, in partnership with Age Action, has created the free guide with the aim of alleviating travel anxieties for older passengers as they navigate through the airport.

The guide provides practical information and guidance on every step of the airport journey, such as getting to the airport, check-in desk locations, preparing for security screening, restroom locations, as well as the whereabouts of shops and restaurants. Additionally, it offers valuable guidance on seeking assistance from airport staff when needed.

The guide can be downloaded here. 

“We want to take the stress out of traveling for our older passengers or anyone who feels anxious ahead of their journey,” said Louise Bannon, director of marketing at Dublin Airport.

“The short, but comprehensive guide, will give reassurance to passengers with a helpful overview of the passenger journey, offering practical travel tips, and contact details for further assistance. It has been thoughtfully designed, in consultation with Age Action, to help anxious or unfamiliar travelers navigate the airport more easily, providing crucial information about facilities, services, and procedures.”

At Skift, we are looking to unearth the most creative and forward-thinking innovations in travel through our Skift Ideas Franchise, which includes the Skift IDEA Awards, Skift Editorial Hub and the Skift Ideas Podcast.

You can listen and subscribe to the Skift Ideas Podcast through your favorite podcast app here.

San Francisco International Airport (SFO) has revealed the itinerary for the latest instalment of its ‘SFO Celebrates‘ program, which aims to bring San Francisco’s neighborhoods and cultural events to airport guests.

The Pride Series will feature live entertainment in Harvey Milk Terminal 1 to showcase the talent and creativity of San Francisco’s LGBTQIA+ community. 

In addition to the live activations in Harvey Milk Terminal 1 – which includes a Drag Extravaganza – there will also be Pride-themed photo stations in Terminal 2 and Terminal 3, a performance by the world’s first LGBTQ-identified cheerleading team, Cheer San Francisco, and much more.

For more information about SFO Celebrates, please visit: www.flysfo.com/sfo-celebrates.

At the Skift IDEA Awards, we are celebrating the ideas that are redefining what it means to be truly innovative in the travel industry, including the organizations and projects leading to social change or benefiting communities.

If you have an exciting project to share, head to the Skift IDEA Awards today and start your submission. The final deadline for entries is June 20, 2023.

Listen to the Skift Ideas Podcast here.

Online travel company Trip.com Group has joined hands with flag carrier Cambodia Angkor Air to position the new Angkor International Airport as a smart airport in the region.

As part of the agreement, Trip.com Group will contribute to enhancing the digital services of the new airport scheduled to commence operations in October 2023.

The partnership also serves to position Cambodia’s competitiveness as a global destination as it aims to strengthen collaboration in various tourism sectors. This would extend to marketing campaigns, hotel development, travel visa services, and tourism talent training programs in both countries.

Expressing the significance of the new Angkor International Airport in Cambodia’s global tourism strategy, Tekreth Samrach, chairman of Cambodia Angkor Air, said the collaboration with Trip.com Group to enhance services and construct a smart airport presents an opportunity for global tourism revival.

Cambodia is estimated to have lost $3 billion of tourism revenue to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Cambodia’s New Airport Worth $880 Million

China’s Yunnan Investment Group, parent company of Siem Reap-Angkor International Airport has invested in the new airport project valued at $880 million.

A steering committee for the construction of Siem Reap Angkor International Airport led by Samrach had announced in March that the airport would be ready in time for its October launch.

Once ready, the airport that would be able to handle long-haul aircraft with the capacity to receive about seven million passengers per year initially, 10 million by 2030, and 20 million by 2050.

China is a significant source of inbound tourism for Cambodia, with Chinese tourists accounting for approximately 36 percent of the 6.6 million foreign tourists arriving in the country in 2019.

Cambodia launched the “China Ready” strategy in 2023 to attract more Chinese tourists.

As of mid-May 2023, Ctrip, a Trip.com Group sub-brand, had reported that the number of users from the Chinese mainland searching for Cambodian tourism products had increased by more than 233 percent compared with the same period last year.

In 2022, Cambodia welcomed 2.28 million foreign tourists, according to the ministry of tourism.

Lagardère Travel Retail has launched its first completely autonomous store, Travelwell, at Hong Kong International Airport.

The contactless store, which has been designed to offer passengers a convenient shopping location to complete any last minute purchases, utilizes an Artificial Intelligence technology system to track shoppers and products to ensure an accurate and safe shopping experience. 

When entering the 88 sqm store, customers will simply need to tap or insert their credit card at the payment terminal and then continue their shopping experience as normal. As they exit with their chosen items, the credit card will be charged thanks to a number of algorithms tracking movements around the store.

However for those who may struggle with this new shopping experience, there will be staff and visual guides on-site to provide guidance. 

Lagardère Travel Retail says it has been working with the airport on the concept store since 2019, and believes Travelwell will offer ‘a new kind of shopping experience’.

“We are grateful to have benefitted from the support of the Airport Authority Hong Kong and of business partners to pioneer this technology-led, innovative new store. Our Travelwell store and the beautiful Sky Bridge are a natural fit to each other. I hope the new shopping experience will appeal to travelers and become a memorable part of their journey. This project represents a key milestone in our ambitious roadmap to innovate to elevate the traveler shopping experience,” said Séverine Lanthier, Asia chief operating officer & group chief strategy and development officer at Lagardère Travel Retail.

At the 2023 Skift IDEA Awards, we are looking to celebrate the projects that are defining the future of airports and the traveler experience.

If you have an exciting initiative to share, head over to the Skift IDEA Awards website today and start your submission. Don’t delay, the entry deadline is set to end June 20.

Bournemouth Airport, located in the United Kingdom, has launched a ‘pioneering’ 360-degree video experience aimed at assisting passengers with additional needs when preparing to visit the airport.

According to Regional & City Airports (RCA), the owner of the airport, the use of this technology for accessibility purposes is ‘a first in the aviation industry’.

The initiative is being launched with Cranfield University, as part of a wider strategic partnership aiming to develop the technologies required to create a more progressive future for travel.

Andrew Bell, chief executive of RCA, said, “We recognize that air travel can be daunting for passengers with additional requirements, and are committed to doing everything we can to make air travel more accessible and inclusive for all our passengers.”

“By providing our customers with the opportunity to explore the airport before their visit, we hope to make the experience more enjoyable and less stressful, and will be closely monitoring the results at Bournemouth to see if and how the concept can be developed further,” Bell added.

Passengers can now access the 360-degree video tour of the airport free of charge via the website, with the narrated tour guiding passengers from the point of arrival through to the boarding gate.

You can view the video below:

At the Skift IDEA Awards, we are looking for airport projects that are defining the future of airports and the traveler experience.

If you have an initiative to share, head to the Skift IDEA Awards and start your submission today.

A great talk by Michael Swiatek, the chief strategy and planning officer at Avianca, who happens to be legally blind.

Michael has worked in the airline industry for almost 30 years and spends part of his time raising awareness about the importance of accessibility in travel.

He travels frequently for work and believes that the lack of attention paid to accessibility is the main reason travel can be such a hurdle for many people and this presentation calls for why awareness is the biggest hurdle to overcome for true inclusion of travelers of all types. Worth a watch, below.

From IATA’s World Passenger Symposium in Manama, Bahrain last year in November:

Beijing Capital International Airport will no longer require proof of a negative Covid result for entry into its terminals, Reuters has reported, quoting Beijing News, a newspaper owned by the Chinese Communist Party.

However, it is unclear if passengers need to show negative tests prior to boarding.

The relaxed rules come as the government steps down other restrictions, including parks, supermarkets and offices. The city’s other airport, Beijing Daxing International Airport, has also reportedly lifted its negative test requirement. At the end of November Beijing shut parks, malls and museums due to a spike in Covid cases.

This latest easing follows a series of protests against the state’s “zero Covid” policy.

Beijing Capital International Airport, the country’s largest, used to be one of the world’s top 10 busiest airports, and is a hub for Air China, China Eastern Airlines and Hainan Airlines.

It handled more than 100 million passengers in 2019, and was the second busiest airport in the world, according to the Airports Council International. In 2020 it handled 35 million passengers, while in 2022 did not make the top 10 ranking.

The summer may have passed but the staffing issues at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport have not. The airport is implementing new passenger caps that will restrict the number of travelers passing through the European hub until at least the end of October.

Following a shortfall in security staff, Schiphol is cutting the number of locally departing passengers by 18 percent a day — or to 54,500 people daily in September, and 57,000 in October — through October 31, Schiphol said Friday. And, the operator of Schiphol warned, additional capacity restrictions could be in place through the end of the year.

In 2019, Schiphol handled an average of 196,458 total arriving and departing passengers a day — including both local and transit travelers — according to airport data.

“This decision first and foremost is bad news for passengers and for airlines,” Royal Schiphol Group Chief Operating Officer Hanne Buis said. “Nevertheless, the decision taken is necessary with the safety of passengers and employees in mind.”

Schiphol is not alone in extending capacity restrictions beyond the summer. London’s Heathrow airport is also keeping summer caps in place through the end of October. However, London’s Gatwick airport, after facing its own issues over the peak holiday period, lifted its restrictions at the end of August.

KLM, the largest airline at Schiphol, said Friday that the news on short notice was “disappointing,” and that the new cap would have “far-reaching consequences for our passengers, colleagues and the national and international reputation of Schiphol and therefore KLM.”

Taxi tech company Uber has just recorded its busiest quarter, with gross bookings reaching an all-time high of $29.1 billion in the three months to June 30, 2022. That number’s up 33 percent on the same period last year.

However, losses prevail. Uber posted a net loss of $2.6 billion, with a $1.7 billion net headwind relating to its equity investments, mostly tied to the revaluation of its Aurora, Grab and Zomato stakes. The net loss also includes $470 million in stock-based compensation expense.

For its first quarter it reported a net loss of $5.9 billion, so the momentum is there, particularly from its business travel division.

Overall, trips during the quarter grew 24 percent year-on-year to 1.87 billion, or 21 million trips per day. Revenue grew 105 percent to $8.1 billion, compared to the 2021 first quarter. There was a slower pace of growth for its food delivery unit though, where gross bookings grew 7 percent year-on-year to $13.9 billion.

That may be because fewer employees are ordering takeaways, and instead jumping in an Uber to get to the office. Uber for Business revenue almost doubled in the quarter, growing 105 percent year-on-year to $8.1 billion.

Managed Uber for Business, its “actively managed” portion of the business through Uber’s account managers and sales team, represented 29 percent of Uber for Business’s gross bookings, compared to 25 percent in the second quarter of 2021.

“We’re really selling to significant enterprise customers out there, both in the tech space and the non-tech space,” said CEO Dara Khosrowshahi during an earnings call on Tuesday.

“A lot of these enterprises, some of them are going back to returning to office, some of them are not … the champion use case that we’re seeing with U4B is essentially the business traveler getting out on the road again. And obviously, a sales call over Zoom is one thing, but if the salesperson comes in to see you in person, it gives a different impression and we’re seeing our U4B clients invest in getting their teams on the road.”

Airport traffic was also recovering, growing 139 percent year-on-year, and 49 percent on the first quarter.

The results came out just a day before it launched Uber Travel in the UK, which includes a tie-up with Omio.

In June, Uber for Business said it was taking steps to make it easier for travel managers to nudge their organizations into more sustainable modes of transport, including price-matching Uber Green trips against UberX.