A Best – in-Class Airport Enterprise; BAA and the Non-Aviation Business

A Best – in-Class Airport Enterprise; BAA and the Non-Aviation Business:

BAA is perhaps the world’s leading airport operator in terms of traffic volume and innovation, particularly in the development of retailing. It operates 7 airports in the UK and it is active also in the USA (Pittsburgh, Indianapolis being some notable examples) and in Australia  

BAA’s non-aviation philosophy is ‘to put customers first and concentrate on their needs’. The company aims to create what it terms a ‘total retail environment’ the key components of this strategy including;

·        Positive competition;

·        Branded operations and wide product ranges;

·        Fair pricing;

·        Guaranteed  value for money;

·        High service levels;

·        Continuous improvement and innovation.

BAA continuously maps customer satisfaction by means of technical tools, such as QSM. The QSM is a detailed survey of passengers, covering service standards and value for money. It is designed to track the airports’ overall performance and to highlight areas of weakness. Improvement and innovation are also helped by the structure of the airports’ retail departments – they are organized by function, with specialist product managers running individual retail sectors. Specific examples of innovations include;

·        Retailing management contracts in which BAA pays a management fee to the retailers and retains all sales turnovers as revenue.

·        Bonus points frequency-shopping card;

·        A personal shopping service at Heathrow’s Terminal 4, just one example of the levels of service provided at BAA airports;

·        A ‘theme’. Park’ at Gatwick, named ‘Gatwick and Aviation, past, present and Future’. The idea for a Gatwick attraction arose from the fact that the airports is already among the top five fee-paying attritions in the south – east of England.