Smart transportation means adapting to travelers not schedules

How airports can improve their service to travelers and become smart airports.

I would like to share one of my recent experiences in one of the most international cities in the world — Hong Kong.

On my recent trip to Hong Kong the flight departed about an hour late from Amsterdam and while it was supposed to land in HKG at 10 minutes before midnight the actual arrival was almost at 1 AM in the morning.

I knew the Hong Kong Airport Express train is operating until 00:48 or something like that but I was almost sure that the airline or the airport will communicate the flight delay and the train would wait for us. After all the Hong Kong Airport is known for it´s efficiency and having a long-haul airplane full of people means money for the train operator as well.

But having to transport all passengers of a full Boeing 747–400 to the city without a train means a lot of cars on the street all going in the same direction. So, instead of having a single train heading Hong Kong Central, this lack of communication put hundred of cars on the same street to perform the same task. This translates into great CO2 emissions, road wear, traffic, frustration etc.

And because usually the midnight flight from AMS to HKG is handled by the Airport Express there were not even enough taxis waiting at the Airport. This is only natural, as the taxi drivers were not expecting such a spike in a normal night.

Now next time I´ll go to Hong Kong I hope this situation changes and the Airport will communicate better with the transport operators — both with the train operator and the taxi operators so travelers find seamless and frictionless transportation options no matter what.