As travellers are forced to spend more time at airports, executive lounges play an increasingly important role in retaining customer loyalty. Colin Ellson investigates It is tempting to speculate what the business passenger of yesteryear would make of today’s ever more well endowed airport lounges. Those departing London Heathrow on British Overseas Airways Corporation’s inaugural Kangaroo Run to Sydney in May, 1946, for example.
In the airport's infancy, they had to cool their heels in a terminal made of tents, where a news kiosk provided pre-flight shopping. The ‘business centre’ was a school-style desk with folding chairs, and ‘communications’ consisted of the ability to send a cablegram to North America, and beside the windswept tarmac, a row of red telephone boxes.
All temporary, of course, in that post-war world, giving no clue as to how terminal facilities would take a quantum leap forward. Today, the lounge is seen as an essential sanctuary from the hassles airports are heir to, a weapon of mass distraction in the airlines' battle to attract and retain premium customers. In their search for the competitive edge, carriers not only listen to their passengers but also scan the multiplicity of surveys that put their products to the test. London-based Skytrax, for example, monitors international airport and airline quality levels, and has been putting lounges under the microscope each year since 2000. In 2005, its 38 full-time auditors ranked 35 First and 75 Business class facilities around the world to find the Top 10 in both categories.
In coming to its conclusions, Skytrax looked at dozens of areas. Among them were how far a lounge is from the departure gate, whether is has wi-fi, showers or hot food, and the efforts airlines put into projecting the image of the country their facility represents.
Says Peter Miller, the company's director of marketing: “We are not interested in which airline
has the largest lounges, or necessarily the most technologically advanced services, but the combined quality of product and service. A good airline lounge is somewhere you feel relaxed, genuinely welcome, and the expected product facilities are available. The more chaotic airports become… the more need there is for these facilities.”
Using this gold standard, the survey agreed with passengers that Asian airlines know how to pamper their passengers, and Asia has the lion’s share of luxury lounges. But the Middle East has some worth bragging about, and certain cities in Africa, Europe and Australia hold their own.
The results of the Skytrax survey reflect this geographical mix. In the Business class category, Cathay Pacific’s lounge in Hong Kong was adjudged best in the world, followed by Virgin Atlantic’s Clubhouse facility at London Heathrow. Other top contenders in the two listings included Gulf Air, Asiana Airlines, Swiss, Singapore Airlines, SAS, Malaysia Airlines, China Airlines, Qantas, Thai Airways, South African Airways, Lufthansa and Qatar Airways.
Complimentary access to both departures and arrivals lounges is usually offered to passengers flying in Business or First class, to members of an airline's loyalty scheme – dependant on status – or to a frequent traveller paying in air miles. Increasingly, however, airports are opening up facilities to all passengers, irrespective of the class of travel, who pay on entry; while holders of certain credit cards, such as American Express Platinum or Diners Club qualify under an issuer's programme.
But to Priority Pass, operator of the world's largest independent airport VIP access programme, must go the credit for democratizing the lounge. Launched in 1992 to spread the concept of a haven for all, it now covers airports in over 80 countries, with members paying an annual fee and on each visit.
Other organisations offer similar services, and even the low-cost carriers are recognising the importance of a bolthole for frequent flyers. Easyjet, for example, keen to increase its share of the corporate market, is offering lounge access at 33 airports across Europe. Passengers book in advance and pay £12 (€17/US$21) on the door, for which they have use of business aids, and are served complimentary beer, wine, spirits and snacks.
How the VIP traveller of 60 years ago would have welcomed some of that.
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